Regret
by StArBarD
Summary: Gakupo and Luka finally express their love for each other, the rest of the story should be easy, right? But when Gakupo is attacked, secrets about the Vocaloid family come to light. Can true love overcome any obsticale? Or will these challenges prove to be too much for our super-star heros.
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, not That I am more acustomed to , I'm publishing this again. In chapters this time. This is the first story that had ever reached novel-size for me and the one I'm proudest of. Please enjoy.**

* * *

Kamui Gakupo raised his blade, and with total precision that comes from years of training in the way of the samurai he sliced cleanly through it until he reached the table's surface. There was only a thin, clear sheen left on his blade as he pulled it out of the vegetable's flesh with a squishing sound.

He sheathed his sword and left the kitchen to check on the coals that were burning at the Vocaloid family outdoor grill. Most of the coals had already turned white and the heat felt even when he put his arm over the low burning fire.

"Ah, perfect." Gakupo knew that he had cut his eggplant even without having to look, it was one of those things that you do so many times you do not even have to think about it. He did kind of wish that he could put his samurai training to slightly better use. Oh well.

He carried the plate of eggplant halves outside to the grill and placed them equidistant from the center of the fire. The center of the fire was where all of the heat was, and he really wanted them to be cooked evenly this time, raw eggplant was just not the same as eggplant cooked just right.

Gakupo went inside and put the plate in the sink to wash after he was finished. Somebody had left a green crayon in the Vocaloid family dishwasher and they would have to wait to get a replacement, so until then whoever ate last gets stuck with the dish washing duty.

Not that Gakupo minded; he was always very punctual about meals. Some Vocaloids were so busy with writing new songs, testing new sounds or learning new instruments that they hardly ate at all. Miku Hatsune and Kasane Teto were notorious for keeping stocks of their favorite foods (Leeks and bread respectively) hidden in their room so that they might not be seen for days at a time in between singing and editing songs.

Gakupo opened the refrigerator and began shifting through the Vocaloid family favorite foods. There was a king's ransom in oranges for Rin Kagamine, a fairly large bunch of bananas for her brother Len, a log cabin made of carrots for his sister Megapoid Gumi, and a large salt water tuna for Luka Megurine.

Gakupo moved aside some beer and decided that he would just like a tossed salad to go with his dinner. He pulled a bag out of the vegetable drawer and shut the refrigerator door with his foot.

As he reached into one of the cabinets to get a bowl, Luka Megurine walked into the room. Gakupo had been secretly crushing on her since her release in two-thousand nine; he had only been a year and a half old but he had fallen like a fool for her cool somewhat mysterious character.

She had the softest looking pink hair that swished past her waist as she walked and she was the only Vocaloid produced by the Crypton Corporation that was not dressed in something of a school uniform. (Like Miku or the twins) She had the calmest way of expressing herself, almost to the point of being apathetic but that only made her seem even more mature and aloof.

Gakupo put down his bowl and started pouring salad in without looking directly at Luka. He prayed that his Jinbaori was not stained or wrinkled.

"Good evening Luka," He said with a respectable tone "I'm surprised you are eating so early." He hoped he was coming off as cool and collected, or at least mysterious as a samurai ought to be. He was so shy he would be surprised if he hadn't begun blushing.

Luka didn't say a word but strode right through the kitchen and grabbed Gakupo's jinbaori with both hands and turned him around until he was facing her.

"Crap!" Gakupo thought. "What did I do this time?"

He closed his eyes, thinking back to all of the times he had made some slight offense that had set a family member off on a rampage that had ended in violence. Since he was skilled in combat, he could have easily fought back against Kaito or Len but since he had a moral code to live by, he couldn't attack the girls. Miku had once nearly broken his robot frame since he couldn't fight back.

Luka had been the worst of all. He had been clobbered so badly he couldn't even remember now what he did so wrong to make her hit him like that.

He took a gasp of breath and tried to plead for a reprieve, when Luka kissed him.

It all happened so fast, it was over in a flash. Before he could even kiss back Luka had broken away and began to walk out of the room.

Gakupo touched his lips lightly with his fingertips; the kiss had barely been a brush of her skin, but it had been enough to feel her warmth. "Luka, I had no idea you felt that way…" He knew he was blushing now, but he couldn't help it. Even if it was unmanly he though back to all the times he had felt afraid to let his emotion show and realized that they had been hiding from each other all of this time. All of that wasted time.

Luka had picked up a note book and had begun scribbling down figures. It wasn't until she mumbled "…wet." Gakupo realized she was still in the middle of writing a love song.

"Hold on a minute!" Gakupo shouted over his blooming embarrassment "Did you just use me for reference in your new song?"

"Of course." Luka said calmly as she opened the refrigerator door and pulled out her giant tuna. "As an artist I need some kind of reference to base my experience off of. I can't just write songs based off of speculation."

She swung the tuna over her shoulder and headed up the stairs into her room. "Besides, why else would I kiss you? We're not in LOVE or anything."

"You have to Cook that fish you know!" Gakupo yelled upstairs before sinking into a chair.

"…oh, she really wounded me." Gakupo said clutching his glowing chest in a fake heart attack. "No, I believe she has killed me! Urgh!"

He hurried outside and rescued his grilled eggplant from the grill and put a lid on the fire to kill the flames.

"Pfft! Can't write songs without a reference, she says! How does she write all of those songs about killing people, like Kagome kagome?" Gakupo fumed as he munched on his salad.

"And why me? Why couldn't she just Google it?" He ripped through his eggplant without tasting it. "Why does she have to lead me on like that? Is it possible she doesn't know my feelings?"

By the time he calmed down enough to enjoy his dinner, it was already gone. So Gakupo rinsed his plate and left it for somebody else to wash.

He went into his room and plugged in the wires to recharge his system into his back and practiced playing the chords for his new song with the guitar.

Gakupo was the only Vocaloid with a glowing chest plate and a full body blue skin over his wiring. The blue skin had glowing light blue roads up and down his body that pulsed as they surged with energy. He had never asked his master why every other Vocaloid had human skin all over their body while he had only normal hands and feet, but now it seemed almost necessary.

Why had he been made different? He was the only Vocaloid who had been made with his occupation in mind. Master even used special technology to give him samurai skills before he even developed a personality. Being a samurai was so much a part of him that he hadn't even questioned it before.

Should he?

Was his strange body to blame for Luka's lack of interest? Was it because she didn't like samurai? Or long hair? Why didn't she like him?

Gakupo's playing turned from his new song to paranoid doll, to the chords for imitation black, but he still couldn't take his mind off of Luka so he put down his guitar.

Suddenly, Gakupo heard something. He listened closely, it could have been a high note for a song, or Gumi playing the violin, or…

No! It was definitely a scream! And it sounded like it was coming from Luka's room! He yanked the cords out of his back and shook off the feeling of dizziness when the energy was suddenly cut off. He grabbed his jinbaori off of the bed and raced out of the room.

He hustled out the door and sped down the hallway, leaping over one of the Kagamine's who was lying face down on the rug. He reached Luka's door when another earsplitting shriek came from within.

"Hold on Luka!" Gakupo cried as he kicked the door in with one massive blow.

"What's going on, Gakupo-san?" Len Kagamine had been the one lying down and was suddenly alert when the situation hinted of danger.

Luka bounded out of the open door and leapt into Gakupo's open arms. Startled he grabbed her waist and her thighs and struggled to keep from dropping her. At first she wrapped her arms around his neck and held on as if for dear life, but then she screamed in his ear "SPIDEEER!" and tried to climb up and over his shoulder.

Her white night gown flapped in his face as he tried to keep his balance while she escaped over his shoulder. It was the dress she used in all of her "Just Be Friends" promotions and she said it was so comfortable that she wore it whenever she wasn't clad in her black and gold garb.

Luka landed nimbly on the ground and with the speed of a panther she raced to the end of the hallway and down the stairs.

Gakupo stood aghast. A spider? The cool mysterious Luka was afraid of a spider? He shook his head around and mused at the fascinating new side of Luka he had found today.

"Hey Len, let's do something nice and get that spider out of Luka's room, okay?"

"No way. I hate spiders. And I'm not helping you get lucky!" Len scoffed tucking his bangs behind his ear. If Gakupo hadn't been soliciting his help, he might have hit the rude little kid, but instead he devised a scheme.

"Okay, well if I catch it I'm putting it in Rin's room and when she comes out screaming I'll tell her it was you."

Len's face turned pale and he swooped into Luka's room and began shifting through piles of paper's and clothes.

"Man, Luka onee-chan doesn't look like the messy type but this room speaks for its self."

Gakupo nodded and bent down to look under Luka's salmon colored bed. Suddenly something huge and fuzzy shot out from underneath ad made a beeline for the door. He jumped back, knocking Len over as the huge spider escaped out the open door.

"Gakupo-san, was that the spider?"

Gakupo was stunned and merely nodded.

"But Gakupo-san, that one was almost the size of a cat!"

Gakupo stood up and peeked out the door frame. The mammoth spider headed over to the stairs and raced down out of sight.

"Luka headed down stairs! She's in danger! Come on Len!" Gakupo raced down stairs and without taking more than a brief glance down he leapt over all of the steps.

Luka sat at the bottom of the stairs thoroughly embarrassed. She had big time freaked out in front of Gakupo, she even climbed over his shoulder!

"Oh, why did I do that? I'm such a super wimp!" She scorned herself.

"It's not my fault!" Herself answered back "Did you see the size of that spider. It must have been twice the size of any tarantula I've ever seen!"

Luka sighed. "I can't keep lying to myself forever. But he was right there and I couldn't help myself."

Luka wondered "I rely on him so much. He is always making sure I'm eating meals, and not working too hard. But is that love?

I mean, I know I love him, but how does he feel about me?

And even if we did share feelings, how would we act on emotions?"

Luka sighed even deeper. "It's too bad I can't Google my emotions!"

Luka had kissed him and he had only told her that she needed to cook the fish before she ate it. What does that reaction mean? Does he only care about her so far as a roommate cares for another roommate?

Luka heard bumping coming from her room and wondered what the two boys could be doing up there. She heard footsteps coming down the hall and looked up stairs…

…just in time to be face to face with an eight eyes- fanged monster! The spider was right on top of her and climbing up on her arm.

She screamed and jumped off the stair flinging her arm around trying to knock the spider off before it bit her.

"Luka, look out!" She heard Gakupo cry from the top of the stairs and in a flash he descended from the sky and chopped of one of the spider's legs with his musical sword. The sword gave of a melodic little chime and the spider gave a raspy squeal as it let go of Luka's arm and raced through the first story Vocaloid home.

"Come on Len, hurry up!" Gakupo called upstairs "We've got him on the run!" and the samurai chased the furry arachnid through the living room, upsetting Miku's glass of milk and causing Haku to scream when they raced past.

Gakupo and Len chased the spider down into the basement where it somehow opened the door to their master's Lab. When Gakupo opened the door he saw the monster spider on top of his master so he swung his musical sword with intent to slice the monster in half, but Master quickly side stepped the samurai holding the giant spider close.

"What is going on here?" She asked folding her reading glasses and putting them into her white coat pocket.

"We've been trying to kill that spider!" Gakupo cried thrusting his sword at the fuzzy thing which cuddled closer to master.

"It tried to kill Luka!" Len added for dramatic measure.

"Boys, boys!" Master put the spider on the ground and it happily crawled away into a large glass tank where it promptly fell asleep. "This is my new project, Halloween androids."

"Hallow…wha?" Gakupo's mouth was a gape with surprise.

"Robots people might buy for movies or a haunted house that have their own mind and can move on their own.

Gary, here" She motioned to the spider "Must have gotten out of his tank earlier today."

"Of course he did!" Len cried "That tank isn't even covered!"

"Well… what are you going to do?" she smiled.

Gakupo sank to the ground. What a rollercoaster day he'd been on! Len was also tired so he marched up stairs. "If you make a Michal Myers robot I AM OUTTA HERE!" and he slammed the door.

"Hm, that's a good idea." Master said mostly to herself.

Gakupo motioned with his hand for the master to come over, so she walked until she was right in front of him.

"Look," he said. "I'm really tired. I don't have energy to phrase this correctly, but why am I the only Vocaloid with a blue body suit. Okay?"

Master looked at him oddly. She thought he was being rather short, and a little bit tactless but the strangest thing was…

"You mean you don't know?"

Gakupo shook his head.

"I never told you?"

Gakupo again shook his head.

Master cupped her hand over her mouth. "Oh my god! How could this have slipped my mind?"

What? What is it? Gakupo pressed.

"You are the only Vocaloid I developed using NUCULAR technology. When you inhale, the plutonium in you generates heat and electric energy, when you exhale that heat energy is released. When you charge, you are actually charging the mechanical system that controls your plutonium rod. Unlike the other Vocaloid who need to charge their whole systems. Oddly enough it isn't connected to the rest of your energy system."

Gakupo was horrified. Plutonium?

"That's also why your charge takes much less time than other Vocaloids." Master rambled on.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Isn't plutonium highly explosive?" Gakupo shouted pointing to the glowing part of his chest.

"Why yes, yes it is. That is why I made you a Samurai." Master continued, "So that you would have a gentle temperament, and even if you DO get into a fight it will be smoother and less of a brawl. Oh, and try to be gentle just in case! The Plutonium in your system is strong enough to blast three or four city blocks!"

Gakupo looked to his master, and then to the giant spider.

"You're crazy!" he said, as his battery reached its very last joule of energy. His battery stopped powering his body first, so he lay on the basement floor as he felt his body systems fail him one by one.

"You'd be crazy too if you hadn't slept in three years and your father was Duke of Azerbaijan. Gakupo?" Master finally realized that his battery pack was dying and that he could no longer produce energy for himself but it was too late.

"Crap!" Gakupo thought as his vision turned black. The first things to go would be the nonessential life devices such as digestion, which in Vocaloids was only for pleasure. The next thing to go would be his five senses starting with vision. The last thing would be his thought processing unit.

"Why didn't I charge?" He asked himself furiously as Master's voice dwindled into nothingness. Hearing was already gone.

"Oh, right. Luka screamed." Gakupo would have sighed if he wasn't paralyzed from lack of energy.

"When I think back to all of the times I could have blown the whole Vocaloid family to kingdom come it horrifies me!" he thought with a quiver of terror. Why hadn't he asked Master about his strange body before?

The answer was simple. For the same reason he had never told Luka how he had secretly felt. Fear.

Well, it was no good since his fears had, in this case, been justified but he still felt rotten for letting himself get pummeled and beaten up when he could have destroyed three city blocks with the slightest jarring.

Gakupo thought glumly. Maybe this whole experience had been a metaphor for how he should handle his feelings for Luka. He hated metaphors even in literature. If somebody had something to say, why didn't they just come out and say it? Why all of the subterfuge?

But wasn't that what he had been doing? Subterfuge? Did that make him a hypocrite? Gakupo thought so.

As his vestibular sense left him, he suddenly felt as if he was floating in an ocean of nothingness. He couldn't feel anything or even feel his body.

"That's it. I've decided!" Gakupo's mind screamed at the blackness and emptiness that threatened to swallow him. "From this point on I refuse to hide or keep anything from anyone anymore! I'm going right upstairs and telling Luka that I love her! And I'm going to kiss her and if she hates me…" Gakupo would have gone on with his thoughts, but at that moment the last of the energy in his batteries was used up and he fell into a deep sleep that was too close to death for dreams.

Gakupo saw light and heard sound. He wearily opened his eyes and blinked away the blurriness that clouded his vision. "…I'll kiss her again and tell her that my heart is hers alone…" He mumbled sleepily as he scratched the sleep from the corner of his eyes.

"Who?" Luka said suddenly from a folding chair that had been opened just to the side of the white operating table.

Gakupo jumped and quickly scanned his surroundings. He was still in the basement, but he found he had been asleep on top of the operating table used to fix broken Vocaloids. He quickly jumped off the table and used the edge to prop himself up. His legs felt weaker for some reason and they wouldn't support his weight unassisted.

"Luka?" he asked "What happened?"

Luka stood up and helped Gakupo into the folding chair. He was grateful since he wasn't sure how long he could stand alone. His whole body felt shaken and weak like a newborn foal.

"Well, we let Master get some sleep, and when she woke up a few days later she was adamant about making you like the other Vocaloids." Luka said leaning against the table.

"She said something about an explosion."

Gakupo quickly explained to her all about the nuclear technology and how he could have killed them all anytime back then, and was surprised when she laughed it off.

"Hahahaha! That is just the kind of thing that could happen to us!" Her laughter was sharp and clear like the chiming of bells, and Gakupo couldn't help but think that there was something fake about it.

"So now I'm just like you, and Kaito and Gumi and everybody now?" Gakupo patted his chest and realized that he could no longer feel bulges from the glowing avenues that use to run from his chest all over his body.

He realized he was in a white bath robe and he could look down his legs from his toes to his knees. What had once been dark blue cloth had been replaced by a synthesized material that looked and felt like human skin.

"I'm normal." He sighed relieved.

"Well, since you're awake I'm going to wake up Master. She's been trying to catch up on years of sleep." Luka stood up to leave and she smiled and waved as she went to go.

"Wait!" Gakupo shouted. Luka halted at the door but she didn't turn around.

"I Love you." Gakupo stated strongly. His voice seemed to reverberate in his chest giving him more strength. "I've always loved you. Ever since January thirtieth, two thousand nine; I can't stop thinking about you. I want to know everything about you."

Luka hadn't turned around, or even made a sound or moved at all, so Gakupo continued: "I'm sorry if I've acted contrary to my heart, but I won't let the impression I made in the past stand in place of truth. I love you."

Luka was silent. Gakupo didn't know what else to say. They both just stood there awkwardly waiting. Finally Luka sighed.

"I'm sorry Gakupo-san. I just don't feel the same way. I hope we can still be friends." She took a few more steps towards the door. "Just friends."

Gakupo was crushed, but he took a few long strides over towards the door and he seized Luka's wrist. He was going to keep his promise to himself and to her.

He spun her around and she looked at him wide eyed, her mouth opened in surprise and he kissed her passionately.

At first Luka was too surprised to do anything, but then she began to kiss back. She was like electricity passing through his lips. She wrapped her arms around his neck and every touch felt like pure joy. Every simple movement a sensation.

But suddenly Luka broke away. She pushed back his face and turned her whole body away.

Gakupo wiped his hand over his face. He felt like he had gone too far, after all he was meant to respect a woman's wishes, and yet…

"I know, I went too far. And I'm sorry. But I promise that my love is as undiluted and true as the rays of light from the sun. I promise that so long as I live, my existence will be only for you."

Luka shook her head and her long pink hair shimmered in a waterfall of salmon. "You should dedicate yourself to pleasing your fans, not me."

Gakupo took two steps towards her with intent to hold her elbow, her hand; touch her gently and make her look at him. But he was afraid that he might lose himself again and kiss her so he took one step back.

"I could be the most loved Vocaloid, with the most fans in the world; but Luka, it doesn't mean anything if you still aren't a fan of mine. I would trade all of the fan art and fan fiction and fan girls for a half-hour with you alone."

Gakupo blushed. "Their love for us is superficial. They love only what they see and hear on the internet. But what I have for you is real and true. It comes from countless hours spent talking and working with you.

I understand you Luka." Luka turned her head a fraction of an inch but she still hid her expression.

"Whatever reason you don't want to be together is fine. If it's because you think I'm just a dorky samurai, or because I'm from INTERNET Co while you're from Crypton or if you think I'll just get in the way of your career, whatever you decide is fine! But remember this. Love is an emotion. I can't kill these feelings with logic or reasoning. I can only let them die of neglect. I tried to hide them, but over time they just became stronger. They won't die. Not so long as you are somewhere in this world. I promise."

Luka held her head in her hands, but she didn't turn to look at Gakupo. Gakupo thought he wasn't going to get a response so he walked past her to leave the basement and go talk to another Vocaloid about the giant spider or something.

When he opened the door all the way Luka wrapped her arms around the back of his neck. He cried out in surprise and fell onto the floor.

She just hugged him. But she wouldn't let go.

"Luka?"

"I think I love you too Gakupo."

"Then why? Why all the trouble? All the rejection?"

Luka snuggled into his chest. "Can you keep a secret?"

Gakupo wrapped his arms around her. "Of course."

"I can't remember anymore."

Gakupo chuckled and Luka beamed. They both felt so comfortable in each other's arms, it didn't matter that they were on the floor in a dark room.

Suddenly they heard applause. Meiko, Haku, Miku, The twins and Kaito were standing right outside the open door with dull expressions clapping. They had probably heard the whole thing and seen the last little bit.

Gakupo blushed furiously and Luka stood up and brushed herself off. Len added a whistle for effect and both Vocaloids marched embarrassed through the cheering crowd and up into their rooms.

When Gakupo sat down at his computer desk her found he had an instant message:

"Do you regret anything you said?"

Gakupo quickly replied: "Not a bit."

"Me either."

Gakupo smiled "Want to do something a little crazy?"

Luka replied "Crazy how?"

"Meet me in my room at midnight."


	2. Chapter 2

"Meet me in my room at midnight."

Gakupo lead Luka through the silent city. Their master had made the home base of the Vocaloid Empire in a secluded little town, far, far away from their fans in hectic Shinjuku or the busy streets of Tokyo. This tiny little town was almost abandoned at night and the only lights came from the stars and the neo-street lights the city had put up, which only glowed like neon and could not be counted on for real light.

So Gakupo and Luka were no more than wandering shadows in the lonely city. It was a little past midnight and the moon had vanished below the horizon at nine-o-clock. Gakupo had told Luka to meet him in his room at midnight and when she did he helped her crawl out his bedroom window and down an old elm tree where they vanished into the streets.

"This wasn't what I had in mind when you said 'your room at midnight.'" Luka complained as Gakupo checked street signs against the fuzzy blue lights.

"I know, but there is no way we could "do it" in that house anyway." Gakupo led her down an avenue that was trimmed with pink neon. "Everyone would know. And probably be outside the door listening." He added with distaste. He wouldn't have mentioned it if it wasn't true.

"You're right, but where are we going?" Luka was winded from ducking down ally after ally, and a little cold in the night breeze wearing only her JBF nightgown,

"First we have to shake THEM." Gakupo said without turning his head. "No! Don't turn around!" Gakupo cried when Luka twisted back and forth, scanning her surroundings. Suddenly she saw two shadows duck behind a building.

"Gakupo, who are they?" Luka asked suddenly feeling scared.

"It's Kaito and Meiko." He said holding her hand and pulling her down another blue-neon alleyway. "They've somehow followed us, and I've been trying to give them the slip."

"So you don't know where we're going?"

"Oh, I do" Gakupo assured her "But it's important that THEY don't."

Gakupo took off his Jinbaori and wrapped it around Luka's shoulders. The white cloak was still warm with the heat from his body and Luka felt her cheeks heat up as well.

Gakupo held her hand gently, and then intertwined his fingers with her own. "Where I'm about to take you is a special place. You must never tell another living soul about it."

He paused, and then added warmly "It's our special place."

Luka was glad that the glow from the blue neon lights was so dim, because she couldn't stop smiling as Gakupo lead her through the winding city streets.

They turned down a wide open road that was almost pitch black underneath the stars. The lights did nothing to combat the shadows that crept along the middle of the road.

Gakupo squeezed her hand. She turned to him and found with a shock that she could barely see his silhouette against the soft green glow.

"I wish he was nuclear now." Luka thought absentmindedly "I would never lose him in the darkness if he could still glow."

Gakupo walked forward at a brisk pace and pulled her close to him as they began to veer into the middle of the street and into the darkness. Luka was sure that she was blushing almost hard enough to give a soft glow. Gakupo was somehow still warming, even though he must be freezing in the darkness without his coat.

He wrapped his arm around her waist and hugged her. Luka could have fainted.

"And to think," She mused as they stepped in synch down the black river of asphalt. "I came so close to making him hate me forever. What was I thinking?"

Luka hadn't know what had possessed her as she thought back to how she had spent more than two years shoving the burning and tingling sensation of fresh love back within herself. She had felt a strong attraction shortly after she had first met him, and she could never quite place the emotion until one day she was writing a song about powerful attraction and it hit her. This was love!

Just knowing the name of the feeling wasn't enough to tell her what to do with it, she needed more. More time, more interaction, more Gakupo.

But it was so hard. What if he didn't feel the same way? Would she kill all of her chances of loving him and being loved back by being too straightforward? What if she was too obvious and it made it impossible for them to be friends? What should she do? How should she act?

Luka compensated by throwing herself into her work. Everyday her fans grew more and more numerous, but she saw Gakupo less and less. He seemed to become indifferent to her.

Finally one day as she lay awake at night she decided to take a crazy chance and test to see if he loved her back. She prepared an excuse, that she was researching for a song and before she could chicken out she raced down stairs and ran into him in the kitchen.

When she saw him, she almost gave up. "Good evening Luka." He said with an indifferent air "I'm surprised to see you eating this early."

Things did not look good but Luka couldn't fight these feelings any longer. As soon as the idea popped into her head she had to pursue it at all costs. It was too intoxicating to resist. The image of their lips locking, and the possibility that it could open a Pandora's Box of genuine romance between them was too much to bear.

She did kiss him, and when her skin brushed against his it felt like electricity passing between them. It was so GOOD! Like raw pleasure coursing through their lips, she never wanted it to end.

But in the same moment she became scared. Scared that this kiss might signal the end of a peaceful friendship. She broke it off long before she wanted to stop, and hoped that he would show the same longing, or attraction, or something.

She was disappointed, but at the same time relieved. He didn't say anything about feeling the same way, but he didn't say he DIDN'T feel the same way. No real commitments were made. No real ties were broken, no bridges burnt. Luka and Gakupo could go back to being friends.

Luka was relieved, but guilty. Yes, she could still love Gakupo in secret and never have her feelings revealed or hurt; but she felt like a coward. She had taken a chance, and then squandered it to end up in the same place she had been in before. No changes, nothing gained. Cowardice.

Suddenly Luka was brought out of her reflective thought by Gakupo squeezing her fingers together.

"Run!" He commanded and then he pulled her further into the darkness.

Luka cried out once as she struggled to find her footing in the road made of shadows but by relying on Gakupo's guiding arm she became faster and faster until they ran side by side. There were no more neon street signs wherever Gakupo was taking her, only the black road.

Luka was cold, winded, tired, and a little bit apprehensive running further away from the city and into the black, but when she heard Meiko's voice crying "Damn it! You stupid kids" From somewhere behind her she began to laugh.

And when she stopped laughing and heard Gakupo panting beside her, she began to laugh again.

"Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine you here beside me." Luka sang in her head as the road began to incline ever so slightly.

She had been lucky. Gakupo was a man with courage. He had felt the same way about her all along, and after she kissed him, he pledged his unyielding loyalty to her. Like a knight from the tales of King Arthur.

"I could be in Antarctica, New York, Tokyo, or London and I would be giddy if I was only there with you." Luka kept coming up with sweet little lines to describe how she felt, and making a mental note of them to use for songs in the future.

Finally Gakupo stopped her and cupped his hands over her eyes. "Wh-what are you doing?" She asked as she tried to peel his fingers away from her face.

"This next part is a surprise. I want you to get the full effect of it." Gakupo said grinning. He knew what the surprise was and he knew it was going to be great.

Luka didn't mind. It had been so dark she had practically been blind anyway, and she trusted Gakupo to lead her safely wherever he wanted.

The road had become really steep and Luka had to trudge uphill. When the road stopped and Luka stepped onto wet, slick grass with a crunch she paused and Gakupo almost bumped into her, but instead her simply brushed against her and Luka once again felt the electricity surge inside of her. What she wouldn't give to just unleash all of this current on him. Let him feel the brunt of her passion and get electrocuted by his in turn.

"Okay, we're here." Gakupo pulled his fingers away slowly like the curtain rising above a show.

Luka's mouth dropped wide open and she gasped. Somehow Gakupo had brought Luka to the top of a hill which over looked the sleeping city and beneath a blanket of stars there was a rainbow of neon lights from the city's neo-streetlights that spiraled into a maze of dazzling colors.

Luka was amazed, but suddenly she felt as though she were drifting off into the scene, as though she were sliding off the hill and down to the lights, she was dizzy with vertigo so she reached back and grabbed Gakupo's arms for support and he held her and they both gazed over the sleeping city of lights.

"Wow…" Luka's breath was taken away. Never in her life had she ever seen such a marvel; it was as though someone had painted fluorescents over a black background, but the beauty of it was not in the colors alone, but in the naturalness of the scene. The entire city became a silent work of art after dark, and the only person who could truly appreciate it was Gakupo.

"How long have you been coming here?" Luka asked, never peeling her eyes away from the beautiful display of lights. Every time she moved her eyes, she saw something beautiful and new and she drank up the gorgeous scene like a man dying of thirst.

"About a year now." Gakupo smiled and carefully slid his hands around her waist, holding her up against the vertigo. "Every time I come out, I see something new and amazing, and whenever I'm stuck in a song, this place cheers me up."

Luka and Gakupo stood and stared at the scene mesmerized for the longest time. They didn't say a word, just admired the beauty. Every second was in constant awe at some new miracle they could find in the city below. Some new color that was invented when the glow from different colored neon lights bled into one another, some new shape that was made by the way the lights wrapped around buildings.

Finally Luka realized how cold she was standing on top of a hill in her thin night dress. Her shoes had been soaked through by wet grass and not even Gakupo's cloak could fight her shivers. She broke her gaze from the dazzling lights. "Gakupo, let's go."

She felt disappointed, but she couldn't stay for one more moment if the night was going to be this cold. "Let's go somewhere warm, okay?" She tried, but couldn't stop her teeth from chattering.

Gakupo seemed surprised, but instead of leading Luka back down the hill, he asked her to stay put for one more moment. Luka didn't know how, but she would just have to be still in the night air while her only source of warmth left her side.

Gakupo knelt beneath an old oak that stood mounted in the hill. At the bottom of this tree was a little memorial stone with the name Camui Gackt engraved in the marble.

Camui Gackt was the voice that was utilized for the original Gakupo vocal software. He wasn't yet dead, but Gakupo felt a special connection with this actor he had never met. He put up this tomb so that one day when Camui Gackt was gone, he could bring people here and let his memory live on vicariously through the android that would never die.

But for right now, the tomb was hollow and Gakupo used it for storing and hiding things that were considerably less important, like a tent, and a space heater, and some soft, fluffy blankets.

He lugged the tent to the top of the hill where Luka waited patiently shivering. The tent was one of the easy opening "cheat" tents that you could put up by tugging on a cord, so Gakupo had it open in a flash. He tossed the blankets inside haphazardly and placed the battery operated space heater in the corner.

He held open the flap and ushered Luka inside. "My lady," he said bowing regally "Your royal bed chamber awaits."

Luka crawled inside and was instantly gratified. The space heater was already filling the tent with warmth and Luka could feel the sensation returning to her face. Gakupo crawled in after her and sprawled out on his back and passed Luka one of the fuzzy blankets.

"Here, wrap up. You look pale." He said pulling one of the sheets over himself.

Luka smiled in the dark. That was so Gakupo. Two people in love, alone in a tent at night and he's worried about taking care of her. Luka wrapped up in the blanket and scooted closer to the heater.

"Oh, well. That was part of his charm." She thought lying down in her fluffy cocoon.

All of a sudden Luka noticed that the ceiling was made of clear plastic. She could see the bands of the Milky Way and the colors of the city. She relaxed and began to drift off to sleep.

Then Gakupo wrapped his arms around her neck. She was suddenly wide awake and all of the stars looked like pairs of staring eyes. She felt like thousands of people were watching her, and for the first time in her career as a world famous singer she was uncomfortable with it.

"I'm sorry." Gakupo said nuzzling her shoulder. "I know I'm being presumptuous, but I couldn't stand to see you cold one minute longer."

Luka might have thought that was sweet, if she didn't see him grinning in the dim starlight.

"Has that line ever worked on anyone?" She asked squirming away from his cold nose.

"I don't know. I've never tried it before." He laughed as Luka unwrapped from her blanket cocoon. She moved under Gakupo's blanket and suddenly there was nothing but hesitation to hold them apart.

Gakupo felt the contours of her body pressed against his chest and he suddenly realized that her nightgown didn't hinder ANYTHING. Nothing was hidden or padded, or distorted with bumpy lace. He felt her as she was; and suddenly he wanted to KNOW how she was. He didn't want anything to be between him and her any longer, no matter how thin or small.

Luka felt his strong firm chest and ran her thin fingers over the muscles and around the ribs. She wanted to throw the electric feeling at him. Make him feel the debilitating tingling that ravaged her whenever they touched. But only the nagging worry ate away at her impulse.

Luka pressed her head against his chest and stared out at the stars. She couldn't recognize any of the constellations in the sky, it was as though someone had taken a soup spoon and swirled them all around until they didn't make sense anymore. It was frustrating to try and find a familiar pattern.

"Luka, what's wrong?" Gakupo asked sensing tension and unease within the pink-haired Vocaloid.

"Do you remember the song "Witch hunt?"

Gakupo did, in fact. The song was about a witch (Luka) who was beautiful and fell in love with a prince (Gakupo) who had an admiring Cleric (Miku) who decided to have the witch burned at the stake.

The prince had authorized it and just stood by while the fire crept up and burned his beloved, and the prince only watched. Only watched while people spat hatred and anger at the girl. Screamed for her to repent, without giving her chance to. Gakupo had shed a few tears before the end of the video when the witch saved herself by growing huge black wings and flying off.

Gakupo nodded and Luka drummed her fingers against his ribs. "Maybe that's what I'm afraid of." She murmured to herself. "That one of us will screw up somehow and betray the other. We'll end up hurt or something."

Gakupo hugged her arms and rested his chin on her head. "There are so many Vocaloid songs about heart-ache, hurt and betrayal. It's natural to be afraid." He kissed the top of her head.

"But, you know what? There are even more songs about star crossed lovers who watch each other forever and something tragic happens and they never meet. They just waste away admiring each other from afar."

Luka looked up and he kissed her face. "I would rather see you, touch you, love you, and get hurt by you, than never touch you at all."

Gakupo held her hand right to his neck. "Feel me. I'm right here. And so long as I live, I will never, ever make you cry. I will love you and only you forever. And forever starts right now. There is nothing stopping us anymore."

And Gakupo began to kiss her passionately. Her kissed her cheeks then made a trail of warm kisses leading to her mouth. And Luka couldn't hold back anymore. The electric feeling was too great. She grabbed for his waist and peeled his black shirt over his head. They broke up their kissing for just a moment and then they began to smooch again. Luka ran her fingers through his hair and his "X" shaped hair clip fell out which let all of his long purple hair flow all over them like a water fall.

Luka broke away from the kisses to take a gasp of air with her head pressed against his chest. She felt so warm and so elated. The blankets were so soft and so comfortable. Gakupo was so warm and the tent was so dark. She was lulled by the sounds of crickets and the rhythmic sounds of his heartbeat and pretty soon Luka was asleep.

"Luka." Gakupo whispered her name sensually, but when there was no response he whispered again louder. "Luka?"

The only response was a light, gentle snore. Luka was fast asleep and using his arm as a pillow. Gakupo was baffled as to how she could have been so riled up a moment ago and asleep now.

"Oh, well" Gakupo thought glumly "What am I going to do? Wake her up?" Gakupo wouldn't and couldn't. He wouldn't because he was a gentleman who would always be kind and gentle to women, he couldn't because he found himself enthralled with watching her sleep. She was so beautiful, it was mesmerizing and when she slept she looked like one of the ark angels swooping from fluffy pink clouds in a renaissance painting. Benevolent and mysterious. When she breathed in, it was as if he needed to hold his breath in anticipation, when she breathed out, he felt his whole body relax with her.

Her lashes fluttered slightly as her eyes moved rapidly beneath the lids. She was in a deep, deep sleep. Gakupo figured it was to be expected since she had barely been sleeping due to working on her new song all day and night.

He wanted to wriggle his fingers. He wanted to wriggle his fingers BADLY. His arm was falling asleep under Luka and he needed to move if he wanted sensation to return to his arm, but she was so peaceful sleeping. He couldn't even bring himself to flex his fingers. Pretty soon the tingling became almost unbearable, it was painful.

Gakupo just held his breath and stared at the stars. He could see the bottom half of Orion just disappearing behind the rim of his clear tent ceiling and he had a clear view of Canis Major and Lepus. The star Mintaka was almost completely out of sight and pretty soon Columbia would start peeking over the edge of the tent.

Gakupo was waiting for sleep and trying to name the stars he saw when something brushed against the tent. Suddenly Gakupo was on high alert. "Could it be Meiko of Kaito who finally caught up with them? What would they say when they saw him, half naked with Luka laying on top of him?"

Gakupo lay silently, hardly breathing, when the tent flap opened without unzipping more than a few inches.

Gakupo listened to the unzipping noise curiously. "Why wouldn't someone open the tent all the way? Were they just peeking in? Why?"

Then he felt little paws walking up his leg. "AN ANIMAL!" He thought "There is AN ANIMAL in the tent!"

Gakupo was just about ready to jump up and scare the creature out of the tent when he realized that the paws were so small and light, it could only be a baby animal. He waited until the animal walked into the starlight, and then he saw that it was a feline.

It was absolutely a cat; a kitten to be exact, a tiny orange kitten with huge eyes that glowed in the low light. The tiny cat was small enough to fit inside a teacup with room to spare. It crawled up Gakupo's leg and nestled down in the space between Luka's and his body.

"If she rolls over buddy, you're dead." Gakupo thought as he watched the baby animal bemused. The cat certainly wasn't afraid of humans, or maybe he was just looking for a warm place to sleep. Whatever the case or the reason, Gakupo was thinking of giving the cat to Luka when she woke up.

It wasn't until the constellation of Orion was completely gone from the sky that Gakupo fell asleep with Luka and the cat.

Meanwhile, Kaito was having a rough time with Meiko in the city. After they had lost track of Gakupo and Luka, Meiko had insisted they visit a local bar and drink until they were both fall-down drunk. Kaito wasn't into the whole "Drink-till-you're-sick" fling so he only ordered virgin drinks while Meiko ordered the strongest beverages she could think of.

Kaito decided to leave the bar and take Meiko home when she began slurring her words in the middle of a Long-island iced tea.

"I wanna zho two ah bare!" Meiko slurred as she tried to walk down the sidewalk in a straight line. She stumbled into the street and Kaito had to pull her out of the way of an oncoming moped with a young Spanish couple on the back.

"Es two early to go home Kaituh!" Meiko groaned and bent over to puke all over the side walk, splashing Kaito's long coat with bile and alcohol.

"Come on now." Kaito grimaced as he gently pulled her up by her elbow. "We'll get you home and set you up." He said gently. He did not say that he would set her up in bed with some water and aspirin for the morning hangover.

"I luv ewe man!" She mumbled as she stepped in her own vomit "Let me get trunk!"

"Let me get drunk!" Was what she said, and Kaito was wise enough not to tell her she was already drunk. He had asked the waiter what the alcohol content was in a Long-island iced tea, he had written a figure on a napkin. The figure was the symbol for infinity. The waiter had laughed, but Kaito had been filled with dread.

"Argh ewe uh fyrework?" She asked giving Kaito what she thought was a sexy face, what to him looked cataleptic.

"'cause I wanna BANG you all night long." Meiko gave a loud whooping laugh and Kaito forced a laugh. He knew better than not to.

Suddenly Meiko grabbed his face in between her hands and squeezed his cheeks together painfully. She gave him a wet, kiss and Kaito stifled a gag. She reeked of alcohol and tasted like bile.

Kaito decided that for tonight he had enough of being pushed around so he kissed back aggressively. THAT would show her. Teach her that he wasn't a push over, or a punching bag.

But to his dismay Meiko punched him right in the face and knocked him to the ground. A push over and a punching bag.

"Hahahahaha!" She cackled crazily "I love you, you cwazy pearson ewe!"

Kaito wiped the blood from where he'd bitten his lip and put his arm around Meiko's neck. "I love you to." He said suddenly having a brilliant idea. "And you know what? I'm going to take you somewhere special tonight!"

Meiko's eyes lit up like alcohol glazed stars. "Really? Where?"

"Oh, you'll know it when you see it." Kaito smiled as he escorted Meiko without injury down the street. The 'special place' was home. Kaito could have just laugh out loud as he found the street to the house and Meiko didn't suspect a thing until they were right at the front door.

"You know, I wonder what happed to Kakapo and Luki." She wandered aloud as Kaito unlocked the door to their house.

"Hey, wait a minute… zhis plashe looks famiyiar…." She wandered through the thresh hold spell bound with familiarity.

"It's just your imagination. The really cool bar is just upstairs." Kaito was thinking fast but he didn't know how to pull of the rest of the stunt without inciting wrath. The most he could do was get her to the bedroom, but what then was a mystery.

As it turns out, he didn't need a plan. Meiko tripped on the stairs and passed out down the hall from her room. Kaito had to pick her up and carry her to her room, and once he got her there he just tossed her into her bed and left her snoring face-down in the pillow.

He was exhausted and disappointed. They had lost Gakupo and Luka to the disappointment of every nosy Vocaloid, but for all he cared they could screw around or do whatever they wanted since they were adults anyway.

Kaito plopped down on his bed after stripping his long, grass stained, puke splashed, and favorite coat and plugged his charging cords into his back. He fell asleep hugging his pillow and stayed there until the sun just began peeking over the horizon.

He wasn't sure what made him wake up, but when he did he saw Meiko standing at the foot of his bed. The light from the sun was too dim to see much, but Kaito could see the trails of tears reflecting the rosy streaks of light on the silhouette of her face.

"Oh my god!" Kaito shot up from his bed in a flash and held her in his arms. "What's wrong are you hurt…?"

There was no reply but the gentle sobbing that was almost drowned out over his rapid heartbeat.

"Are you sad I lied about taking you out?" Kaito stared into her shadowed face but, couldn't find an expression "I'm sorry, I'll never do it again."

He hugged her close to himself. Then she broke away and walked out the door. She didn't say a word, but she just walked down the hall into her room.

Kaito was perplexed, but he didn't try to follow her. He heard the lock click and he knew that he had somehow screwed up bad, but he couldn't fathom how.

So he re-plugged the cord that he had pulled out of his neck back in and went back to sleep.

"Good morning sunshine." Luka twitched when she realized Gakupo was still right beside her and she flinched up when she realized that he wasn't wearing a shirt.

"Oh my god, what did we do last night?" She wondered horrified. She couldn't quite remember the whole night and it was too early to try.

"Hey, Luka… If you had a cat what would you name it?"

Luka thought hard, and tried to fight the early morning foggy mind. "Uh… Picaro." She said definitely.

"Why Picaro?" Gakupo asked chuckling under his breath.

"It means rogue or outlier. Why?"

Gakupo lifted up an itty-bitty orange kitten that he had grabbed by the scruff who was trying to bite his hand with its little teeth.

Luka gasped and grabbed the feline from Gakupo's hand. It was so TINY! It could fit in one hand. Luka stroked it and it began purring right away and began to close its eyes and sleep.

"He's just precious, Gakupo!" Luka sighed. "Where did you find him?"

"He found you."

Luka held the kitten while Gakupo put away the blankets, heater and tent into the hollow tomb, then they headed down hill, and home.

People had started to wake up and move through the city as the sun bathed the city in orange light and street-by-street the neon lights flickered off.

Luka was too tired to care if people saw her in her night gown, but she was also worried.

"Um… Gakupo, about last night. We didn't… I mean, you know…did we?"

"No you fell asleep first." He assured her.

Luka didn't know whether to be relieved or embarrassed. So she petted the newly christened Picaro.

Gakupo was too tired to try climbing the tree to his room, so the two Vocaloids walked in through the front door hoping nobody was awake.

Everyone was awake and eating cereal in the kitchen. Gumi, master, Miku, and Len were munching on cereal and smiling. Len smirked extra wide and there was something Gakupo didn't like about the way he said "Good Morning!"

Luka let Picaro go explore the house and Gakupo stumbled up to his room. He collapsed on his bed and began to recharge when Luka appeared at his door.

"That was really fun." She said smiling, though blushing furiously. "I would really like it if you took me again sometime, if it's okay with you."

Gakupo laughed "Sure!" Of course it was no problem!

Luka bowed and left. Gakupo lad back in his bed and fist pumped the air.


	3. Chapter 3

Gakupo watched and waited. Gakupo waited and watched. His heightened samurai senses were on full alert as he carefully dangled string just a few inches from the floor of his bed, in attempts to lure his adversary into a sense of false safety.

Suddenly a tiny paw shot out from beneath his bed and in one fluid motion Gakupo seized the little limb and dragged the kitten Picaro from the black abyss beneath his bed, where he had been hiding and pestering the samurai ever since Gakupo tried to get out of bed that morning.

"Picaro, stay out of my room!" Gakupo cried into the face of the tiny orange kitten. Picaro merely blinked his huge, watery blue eyes innocently, but Gakupo had a hunch that the kitten knew exactly what he meant, and was disobeying him on purpose.

"Seriously cat, I'm going to step on you. Then what?" Picaro had been lying in wait beneath Gakupo's bed and catapulting himself beneath Gakupo's feet whenever he tried to leave the room making him trip. Whenever Gakupo tried to get to his bed the cat would launch itself from beneath his bed and ambush his feet in a hail of kitty-scratches and biting with its sharp baby teeth.

"Then you'll be flat, that's what." Gakupo escorted the kitten to the door and dropped it outside then promptly slammed his door shut before the cat could dart back in.

Picaro had been a stray kitten that had wandered into Gakupo and Luka's tent one night as they enjoyed a romantic evening on a starlit hill. Luka had fallen asleep early, so Gakupo presented Picaro as a gift to her when she woke up.

She was delighted, but she was also busy with a new album on the way so she didn't have any time to humor the playful, rambunctious kitten. Picaro had spent every waking moment exploring every nook and cranny of the Vocaloid family house, becoming instantly infamous for somehow opening closed doors.

And when it wasn't bounding around the house running off an endless store of energy it was either playing with the younger Vocaloids, or sleeping in impossible places. Gakupo had already found him sleeping in his clean clothes, a shoebox, the kitchen counter, the very top of a tall book shelf and Kaito's white sneaker.

The kitten had already grown in the three days they had owned it and would no longer fit in the palm of Gakupo's hand, but it was still smaller than a slice of bread. Even with such a small body, Picaro was a destined Vocalist.

"MeeeeoooooOOOOorrrAAAAAooooo wwwWwww!" The yowling shook Gakupo to his core. He couldn't believe something so small could make a noise that shook his windows. He flung open the door to his bed room and Picaro trotted inside lackadaisically, as if he was supposed to be there.

Gakupo couldn't believe the audacity of the kitten, and as the cat ducked down under his bed Gakupo decided that he needed a break and opted to let Picaro HAVE his room.

As Gakupo closed the door to his room he decided he wanted to rent a movie from the little store down the street that was owned by a burly man who always called him "Samurai guy" and said he was good for business. Gakupo didn't feel like doing much of anything since he was stuck with a massive case of writers block for his new song, but it was too early for bed. And besides, maybe he could find something inspiring in one of the old movies or classic musicals.

On his way to the stairs he ran into both of the Kagamine twins. Gakupo immediately became suspicious when it looked like they weren't doing anything in particular. Both of the blond twins were just standing by the stairs, as if waiting for him. Anyone who knew the Kagamines at all knew that they were ALWAYS doing SOMETHING; so when they were seemingly doing NOTHING it became suspicious.

"Hey Gakupo onii-chan." Rin smiled playing with a lock of her blond hair.

"Hello Rin-chan, hello Len-kun." Gakupo tried to say as pleasantly as possible while nudging around the two twins trying to ignore a nagging feeling that they were up to something and it involved him.

"So, how is Luka lately? Huh, onii-chan?" Len grinned while twirling his tie around his ring-finger.

"…she's fine…why?" Gakupo just wanted the conversation to end, but he couldn't help wondering why the twins were double teaming him on the staircase.

"Well, we heard that you struck out the other night, so we decided to show you some of our techniques." Rin said hugging Len around his neck.

Len grabbed Rin's waist and swung her over romantically in a Spanish swoop. "You need to be DANGEROUS, like this. You can't always be just some goody two shoes samurai."

"Yeah, girls love a man who takes control of a relationship." Rin said staring at him upside-down. "Risk-takers get a larger payoff in a long-term relationship."

Gakupo stared at the twins in disbelief. He knew that their fans loved the idea of the two as a couple, but had the phenomenon gotten so bad that not even the TWINS cared about the boundaries of their relationship?

Gakupo cried in alarm. "Rin, he's your brother!"

"So?" Rin straightened her shirt as Len let her stand up straight,

"Isn't that a little bit… weird?"

"Pshaw!" Rin snickered. "Don't change the subject, it's still about you!"

Gakupo brushed his hair away from his face. "Look, thanks for the help; but it's really none of your business what Luka and I do in our relationship. We're both adults, and we don't need direction from the two of you. We're doing fine."

"Ouch." Rin flinched.

Len smirked looking down on Gakupo as her descended the stairs. "We're technically older than you, y'know?"

"Little brats!" Gakupo fumed as he marched down stairs and out the front door. He carefully shut and locked the door to the Vocaloid family house and he was just about to leave the yard when a soft noise like a cooing caught his attention.

"Gakupo onii-chan?"

"Hi Gumi." Gakupo turned to find his little sister staring at him from behind one of the trees in the house's yard.

Gakupo was actually the original android produced for the Megapoid programming which produced realistic and professional levels of singing that were easy to tune and pitch, as opposed to the Vocaloid2 which produced fascinating unique vocals but could be a bit temperamental with tuning. Gumi was the android that came after him and he thought of her fondly as his little sister, and encouraged her enormous potential for growth.

"You're going out again?" Gumi asked approaching him slowly and cautiously.

"Yeah… I want to rent a movie. Is there anything you need while I'm out?" Gakupo had another sneaking suspicion that Gumi had an ulterior motive for speaking to him and she wouldn't meet his eyes.

"Gakupo, I need to talk to you." Gumi grabbed his hand and yanked him down into a bow. "Now."

"Gee, Gumi. Are you sure it can't wait until I'm back?" Gakupo was planning to have Gumi let go of his arm for just a moment and then run as fast as he could to the store and away from the house.

"I bet you're going to meet HER again, aren't you?" Gumi's face began to turn red and tears gathered in the corners of her emerald-green eyes.

"Who? Luka? No she's still working in her room!" Gakupo floundered trying to keep the tears from flowing over Gumi's cheeks. He couldn't deal with crying!

"Awesome, then you can afford some time with me!" And with that Gumi picked the samurai up and threw him over her shoulder like a sack of flour, even though he was twice her size.

"Ahhh! Gumi! No! Down! Put me down! Now!" Gakupo kicked and squirmed but eventually resigned himself to being carried into the house when he couldn't break free.

The android that the Master had used for Gumi had originally been part of a temporary project that was going to end up being a group of android-superheroes for the government. As soon as Master had heard of another Vocaloid being produced, she switched gears and immediately began converting the super strong android into the sweet playful Gumi. But Gumi still retained the monster strength that was supposed to belong to the undeveloped superhero.

And sadly for Gakupo, she was not shy about using it. She often picked him up or swung him around when she was happy, which to him was un-manly; but what could he do? She wouldn't listen to his complaining when she tossed him around, or the snickers of the other Vocaloids. She'd just say "Lighten up" in her own ditzy way.

She single handedly unlocked and opened the door, and to Gakupo's dismay many Vocaloids had filed into the living room where she carried him.

"This is not happening!" He murmured under his breath as his embarrassment turned into outright horror as the room filled with giggling and snickers.

Oliver filed out as soon as Gumi tossed Gakupo onto the couch, but many other Vocaloids stayed and continued whatever they were doing, which seemed to be a hastily begun chess match between Teto and Ted, Sweet Ann flipping through channels absent mindedly, and Kaai Yuki squeezing Picaro like a stuffed toy.

"Get out." Gumi commanded sternly and Sweet Ann grudgingly picked herself up and trudged up stairs with Teto and Ted in hot pursuit. Gakupo listened to their footsteps and he could tell that all three were only just out of sight and listening at the top of the stairs.

Kaai Yuki dropped Picaro and began to cry, but walked off into the kitchen without a word.

Gumi stood above Gakupo for a second, and he almost stood up to walk past her, when she held his hand and sat down beside him.

"I'm really worried about your fans," she said seriously while flexing his fingers.

"My fans?" Gakupo was irritated and spoke sarcastically to Gumi which made her wince. Gakupo took a few deep calming breaths and tried to clear his mind when "Ura emote Lovers" by Hatsune Miku started blasting from somebody's bedroom.

"The environment in my brain woke up from the dream where I was filled with distress,

and got invaded by this strange thing called love, and since then..."

Miku's voice rang out while harmonizing with the synthesizer in what was at first a very disconcert tune, but was supposed to become more appealing as the song went on.

"It's not right for you to tie yourself down, since you are a popular character." Gumi ignored the song but Gakupo developed a headache from the fast-paced syllables. It was like every word pounded directly into his skull.

"Uh, huh?" He stated rubbing his throbbing temple.

"You have a duty to your fans around the world to be a versatile character, without disillusionment or anything to kill your applicability." Gumi stated above the music.

"Whoa." Gakupo thought. "Is it just my headache getting worse? I didn't catch any of that!"

"One can't just simply put a limiter to control the environment in their heart

that got split completely into two, so that's why..."

Miku's voice seemed to get even louder among the tangled sounds the synthesizer made blaring down the stairs. Gakupo began to wonder if he was in some kind of horrible nightmare, where everything that could go wrong, goes and there's no way out no matter what you do.

"You are completely alienating the fans who are supportive of other pairings, like you and me—you and Miku! You and Miku, or you and ummm… you and Sweet Ann..."

Gakupo was almost beyond listening, he just wanted some aspirin and some fresh air, and to GET OUT OF THAT HOUSE!

"Every day which is filled with "why"-this then that then good bye baby.

Realism and escapism, my heart holds them both, and they lie closely together."

Who the hell was playing that music?

"Or you and Kaito—"

"NEVER!" Gakupo bellowed over top of the song, but both Gumi and the song kept on talking/ singing over him. He felt as if he was being swallowed with indifference. He WAS in a nightmare.

"Well, that's what I'm trying to say; you need to give your fans an option to choose, when you tie yourself down, you isolate the fans who like the Gakupo X Kaito." Gumi pronounced the X, ex and Gakupo finally and decidedly lost his temper.

"I just touched due to instinct, but there's nothing I really want to say,

It hurts, so please touch me, breathing hard, we feel like we could rise up the sky―"

"WOULD YOU TURN OFF THAT DAMN MUSIC!" Gakupo screamed over the noise and both Gumi and the music suddenly went silent.

Gakupo sighed and enjoyed the silence that was so soothing after all the hectic noise. It felt like he was depressurizing. Once he'd gotten control of his temper he turned to Gumi who sat puckered faced and wide eyed waiting to see if he'd blow up again.

Gakupo smoothed his hair back and sighed. "So what your saying is I shouldn't have a relationship at all ever as a Vocaloid?"

Gumi stared at him for a moment petrified, and then shook her head no.

"Then you're saying that if I do have a relationship, it shouldn't be with Luka, but with someone my fans pick."

Gumi stared at him intensely. She was thinking. What HAD she been trying to say? She couldn't think of an answer so Gakupo sighed and cut their conversation.

"Go Google 'Gakupo X…' and you'll find more Gakupo X Luka than any other Vocaloid, Kaito included." Gakupo shuddered a bit when he added the last part. He liked Kaito okay, and he was a good friend, but that was about as far as their relationship went; or needed to go for that matter. Sometimes the man was just plain annoying.

"But I'm not in a relationship with Luka to earn points with fans. I really love her, and if you respect me you'll respect my opinion." Gakupo's voice was dangerous, and although Gumi had a monologue of things to say, all of them shriveled up when he glared at her seriously.

He wasn't angry. Just serious.

"I'm an adult; Gumi. She's an adult. We're both more than capable of making decisions on our own. So thanks for looking out for us, but don't. We can take care of each other."

Gakupo began to leave the house when he had a sudden idea.

"Everyone eavesdropping on our conversation… I know where you're hiding so come on out already."

At first there was no movement, but slowly Rin, Len, Miku, Sweet Ann, Teto, Ted, Haku and even little Yuki filed into the living room from upstairs, the basement and the kitchen. Yuki had re-captured Picaro the kitten and his legs dangled helplessly as she carried him tucked underneath her arm.

"All right. How many of you—honestly, think you have something to say about me and Luka dating." Everyone raised their hand, even Yuki who dropped Picaro to the floor in the process. The little cat raced upstairs as fast as his baby legs would carry him and Yuki toddled after him with her hand still raised.

"Uh, huh. Now; drop your hands if it is something nice to say. Rin dropped her hand and Yuki was out of sight, so everyone had something negative to say.

Gakupo pretended to inspect the results when actually he was horrified. "So THIS is what they think about us being together. Our own family?"

Gakupo nodded officially, while trying to keep his expression hidden. "Okay, now. I want all of you to just swallow whatever you were going to say to me or Luka, and never let it come up again."

There was a general grumbling from all the Vocaloids present, but Gakupo cut off their moaning. "I don't want to hear it. You're all nosey and butting in where you're not wanted. We don't care what you think about us going out; and we're going to do it anyway."

He turned to leave, then almost as an afterthought he turned around and bowed, "Thank you Rin." And with that he left.

"Man, when did dating get so HARD!" Gakupo grumbled as he stormed down the sidewalk and out into the street. He had felt like a tea pot, screaming full of steam in the house, but now that he was out in the open he felt better. Relieved.

Gakupo was going to turn a corner and leave the Vocaloid family house out of sight and out of mind, when he noticed someone on the side of the house.

He did a double take and saw that it was Kaito in a plain white tee-shirt, staring up into the clouds with a dazed expression.

Gakupo had half a mind to just keep walking, but something made him stop and turn around.

He walked up to Kaito and patted him roughly on the shoulder. "Hey, what's up?"

Kaito gasped and looked at Gakupo briefly. He paused for a moment, and scanned the samurai, as if wondering what to say.

The awkward silence set Gakupo on edge, but Kaito only looked back up and mumbled "Nothing…"

Gakupo could have turned away, but he felt that after being told his 'fans' wanted a GakuXKaito relationship, he was entitled to mess with the younger looking Vocaloid. (Who was actually also older than him.)

Gakupo followed Kaito's gaze and found it directed at a second story window. Curious, Gakupo asked "Whose window is that?"

"….Meiko's." Kaito hesitated to answer. He had gotten tired of trying to 'bump into' Meiko around the Vocaloid house and decided to talk to her face to face. After the strange and embarrassing visit to his room a few nights ago, he had been slow to talk to her in hopes she would explain herself to him. But he hadn't seen any part of her in days.

He couldn't get a response from knocking at her door, but he knew that Meiko was inside because when he tried calling her name, loud music would blast from within until he stopped calling.

It happened at least twenty times. He would try to talk to her and get drowned out by some Vocaloid song. So he waited silently by her door, hoping that she would come out for two days.

She never did.

So now here he was. Absolutely no clue of what he was going to do at her window. Just hoping she might give him another chance, or at least a glance his way.

"What are you going to do? Recite Shakespeare or something?" Gakupo teased elbowing Kaito in the ribs. "But soft, what light through yonder window beckons, it is the east and Juliet is th—"

"Stop it man, that's not even funny!" Kaito exclaimed furiously.

Gakupo suddenly realized how serious Kaito was and decided to save teasing for another day. He glanced back up at Meiko's window and remembered that he hadn't seen her in a few days.

"Man, what did you DO?" Gakupo asked.

"I don't know, but I wish I'd never done it, that's for sure!" Kaito looked wistfully at the window. "If I could take it back, I would do it in a heartbeat."

"Has she said anything?"

"Not one word since you and Luka went out." Kaito bit his tongue and chewed on it for a moment. He needed to think of something, anything to get Meiko and him on at least speaking terms.

"Oh, congrats by the way." He added nudging Gakupo with his shoulder.

"Thanks. Hey, what do you think about us going out anyway?" Gakupo asked inquisitively.

"You're both adults, you can date whoever whenever. It really doesn't concern me." Kaito said nonchalantly waving his hand around, as if dismissing the matter.

Gakupo was ecstatic. He clapped Kaito on the shoulder and hooted "Awesome! Man, I'm going to buy you an ice cream!"

Kaito peeled his eyes away from the window. "For real?"

"You bet!"

Thanks man!" Kaito exclaimed as Gakupo peeled out of the yard and into the maze of streets that made up the sleepy city.

Gakupo felt better. He had a wonderful time browsing the rental movies and had decided to get an American thriller called "Halloween" and "The Nutcracker suite" on a whim. He had gotten into a long and interesting conversation with the store clerk about how the older traditions in Japan were being replaced by the technology aged traditions, and he had gotten the last of Kaito's favorite flavor of Ice-cream.

All in all it had been a good trip and he was glad to have gotten out of the house, but it was going to be hard to face all of the other Vocaloid again.

"How can I talk to them and eat with them and work with them, if I know that they don't support me and Luka?" Gakupo mused this thought with some interest. In the end he figured that he would work with them the same way he always had.

Nothing had really changed except his opinion of the other Vocaloid. Regardless of what they thought about him and Luka going out, he was still going to go out with Luka. Regardless of what he thought of them poking around in his business, he would still have to work with them to make good songs and satisfy his growing fan base.

"I bet in a few weeks, they won't even mind Luka and me." He thought "They'll come to accept us as normal before too long and then we'll have some peace!"

Gakupo's stomach growled meekly. It had been eight hours since he'd last eaten, and his thoughts began to drift from his family and relationships to the refrigerator at home.

The sun had begun to drift lazily down in the sky and dyed the clouds indigo while igniting the sky with vermillion streaks on a yellow backdrop.

Gakupo viewed the colors through the tall buildings and thought of an omelet with ketchup. The neon street lights flickered to life and cast everything in a surreal glow.

Gakupo turned onto a street near the Vocaloid house and saw that something was wrong with the blue neons on the buildings. They flickered instead of glowed and the effect was somewhat catatonic. The buildings cut off the sunset, so the whole street would blink to life in a second of light, and then get cast into darkness over, and over again.

Gakupo felt a chill settle over himself as he felt for his sword at his hip. He was in such a rush to leave the house that he had forgotten it; and it now it lay uselessly on top of a pile of junk in his room. He would have to fight with his bare hands, if it came to that.

"You're just letting your imagination get the better of you." He scolded himself. "It was probably all of the scary art in the horror section of the movie rental. That's all." But Gakupo couldn't shake the feeling that something was amiss.

The flickering lights had a strobe effect and made him dizzy as he tried to walk straight down the sidewalk. He found himself swerving and nearly ran into a black van that was parked near a bunch of trash cans.

Suddenly the neons went out completely and Gakupo only had the dim, faint glow from the fading sun to see by. He couldn't make out anything more than shapes, but at least he had his bearings again.

He straightened himself up, putting his full weight on the van door as a prop, when suddenly the door slide open and Gakupo toppled to the ground.

He cursed his bad luck and saw by the dim light someone step out of the van and look around. He stood up and brushed himself off.

"I'm sorry, I had no idea there was anyone inside. I just lost my balance for a moment and—"

But suddenly the person seized his arm. Gakupo twisted his wrist and snapped it away from the person, jumping back to what he thought was a safe distance and trying to judge the abilities of the aggressive person.

From behind, Gakupo heard four pairs of feet slapping against the pavement. Behind the person from the van three more people turned the corner up ahead. Gakupo could see from the glow of the pink neons from the next street over that the vagabonds were wearing black ski masks.

One more person stepped out from the driver's seat of the van, which made it nine. Nine people who were obviously up to no good.

"No. It was more than that." Gakupo thought seriously as he sized up the people and crouched, ready for a fight. "They were waiting here for me."

It was too dark to tell anything specific about the appearance of the gang, but all that would matter in a fight would be their movement. Gakupo strained his eyes trying to pick up the slightest indication of movement.

All nine stood a good distance away from him and didn't make a move in his direction. They were perfectly still.

Gakupo hoped that they had guessed his strength and were trying to decide whether or not to retreat, but he knew he couldn't be that lucky.

"What were they waiting for?" the suspense was about to kill Gakupo. He just wished that someone would take a step towards him so he could just get the fight over with. Whether or not he got mugged or beaten didn't matter, all that mattered was that he kept moving and somehow made it home.

He suddenly heard the ringing of metal just above him and realized that something was dropping from the roof. He leapt out of the way just in time, as a crowbar clattered to the ground right where he had been standing. It wouldn't have killed him, but it could have seriously hurt him.

He had jumped to close to one of the masked people and they had tackled him with a mighty roar, pinning him to the ground temporarily. He bucked them off quickly, but the roaring worked like a signal, inciting all of the other people to attack.

Gakupo punched and kicked, but he was outnumbered ten to one. A couple of goons grabbed his elbows and tried to drag him into the van, but he slammed one of them hard in the chest with his right elbow and it gave a very feminine cry of pain

"A girl?" Gakupo was surprised, because his moral code states never to attack women.

Gakupo figured he could belay the moral code of samurai ethics in self-defense, and continued thrashing violently and knocking people back.

He fought hard for several minutes, and no people came by to help him; but eventually four or five masked people tossed him into the van and jumped in with him, shutting the door and locking it.

Gakupo felt utterly helpless by now, since his hardest fighting had only delayed them at best and he was now secluded from any other people, unable to see and surrounded by hostile strangers.

Their hands were all over him and it pissed him off. Everywhere he felt the palm of somebodies hand trying to restrain him he threw a punch or a kick blindly. He landed a few hits on the car seat, but eventually he hit somebody hard enough to send them crashing into the car door.

"Godddammit! Get the plug! Somebody? The PLUG!" Another girl cursed and barked commands to her comrades and Gakupo automatically felt sorry for hitting her with his full strength, but he figure he could apologize later when he wasn't in danger of something called the plug.

Six pairs of hands grabbed him in harmony and flipped him over onto his stomach, but only five pairs of hands held him down as he fought his absolute hardest to wriggle out of their grasp.

The sixth pair had icy cold fingers than crept along the back of his neck and made his hair stand on end.

They worked their way down into his shirt where his cord ports were located. He had various plugs and wiring which all connected to one of two ports located on the back of his neck; but these people couldn't possibly know that, could they?

His question was answered when the sixth pair of hands jammed a foreign cord into his fat, wide port that made him go limp from head to toe. He lay with his face pressed into the floorboards of somebodies car, cursing his weakness and burning with pressing questions.

Who were these people? How did they find him? And more importantly, how did they know he was a Vocaloid? And what would they do with him now?

As he slipped into something like a troubled dream he figured that he would soon get some answers when he woke up. IF he woke up.

The black night, faded into a black sleep.

Gakupo woke up startled and uncomfortable. He was wet and itchy and SORE! He looked up with bleary eyes and found himself face-down in his own yard. The dew in the grass had bled through his clothes, making him itchy.

"Gakupo! Man, what the hell happened?" Kaito was screaming right into his ear and shaking his shoulder lightly. Gakupo figured that was what woke him up, though he couldn't be sure anymore. His mind felt heavy.

"These people in a van… what time is it?" Gakupo said the first things that came into his mind, which happened to be two sentences run together.

"You've been gone three hours. What van?" Kaito helped Gakupo up and the samurai patted the grass from his front.

Three hours! Not only had Gakupo made it home, but it was still the same day! What kind of kidnappers were those people?

Gakupo grabbed Kaito's arm for support. "Listen, you were here this whole time, right? Waiting for Meiko? Who dropped me off here? Who was it?"

"I'm sorry Gakupo, I went to the bathroom." Kaito apologized sincerely.

"Bah!" Gakupo bit his thumbnail and wondered: "What did they put in my port? Why drop me back at home?" But he had no answers, or even theories.

"What happened?"

Gakupo walked inside briskly and decided not to leave the house alone for quite some time. He had a feeling, just an instinct, that if they went after him, they might want the rest of the Vocaloids too.

"Kaito, get inside. I have to explain everything to the master anyhow, but I want you inside now. It might not be safe outside anymore." Gakupo knew he seemed cryptic, but when Kaito looked longingly towards Meiko's window he pulled the Vocaloid in by his arm roughly.

"If she won't talk to you in the house, what logic is there in thinking she'll talk to you through the window?"


	4. Chapter 4

Gakupo had explained the entire situation to the Vocaloid's Master, who sent an important bulletin out to all of the Vocaloids via instant messaging on the computer. That was the only way to contact the Vocaloids that were working with their master's correspondent in Tokyo, and the only way to contact Meiko who still hadn't come out of her room.

Master had left out Gakupo's slightly traumatic story and Gakupo wondered if anyone would even pay any attention to the message.

The Master hadn't the slightest clue what the kidnappers might have put in his port, but just in case she would do a full system diagnostic on him tomorrow, which meant he had to cancel his photo-shoot with the Vegetable juice company since it would take all day to completely sift through all his data.

Gakupo didn't care much about his photo-shoot. It was just a promotional and didn't really matter much, but he did sulk over his weakness.

"There were ten of them," he reminded himself. "They played a dirty trick and ganged up on you."

But it didn't take away the feeling that he could have done more. That he hadn't even put up a worthy fight. That he couldn't protect himself. He was sure he wasn't assaulted or molested or any of those usual kidnapping horror stories, but his pride and security had been taken away, and that was almost more painful.

"Oh, well. It's all over and there is quite literally nothing you can do but move on."

Gakupo had been sitting in front of Luka's door for roughly thirty minutes. He listened to her playing dissonant chords on her keyboard and then jamming a few notes on her guitar, and then he heard the scratching of a pencil on paper.

Gakupo needed the kind of security Luka gave him just by being her. She was his lighthouse in the rough ocean that his life had become. She had a sort of magic property that would ease his troubles with just a glance from those stunning blue eyes.

He remembered the night he took her to the hill overlooking the city, and how safe and wonderful he felt wrapping his arms around her. Gakupo became unsatisfied with listening to her through the door and he wanted more.

He wanted to wrap his arms around her, and taste the fire that would gather on the tips of her lips just for him, and have something to hold and protect, even if only tonight.

Gakupo sighed. He didn't know how to tell Luka these things. What would he say?

"I'm feeling insecure, want to make love?" Gakupo chuckled darkly. "Yeah, right."

Gakupo thought hard for a minute. Then when he had enough courage, he gathered his words.

"Luka? Could you take a break?"

Oops! Not what he meant to say!

"I-I mean…." Gakupo had forgotten all that he had planned to say to Luka. It all vanished as soon as he opened his mouth. He decided to wing-it in a moment of self-preservation.

"I need you right now." Gakupo felt his face get hot "It's been a really rough day… a REALLY rough day. And I… I think… I don't know, maybe I'm just lonely. Maybe I'm just hurt. But I only want to…"

Picaro the kitten sat opposite Gakupo in the hallway and Gakupo had an idea. He seized Picaro in both his hands and rubbed the little cat's belly. He had heard that some cats hated that.

Picaro was one of them and began to yowl: ""MeeeeoooooOOOOorrrAAAAAooooo wwwWwww!"

Luka opened up the door and stood with her hands on her hips. "What are you DOING to that cat?"

Gakupo smiled. Just seeing her was a panacea to the day's madness. Besides, she was cute when she was mad. "I'm only rubbing his tummy, see?"

Luka took the kitten and held it comfortably in the crook of her arm. Cautiously she began to rub his belly and Picaro began to purr.

Gakupo was so glad to see Luka that it didn't even matter. He chuckled and said "Picaro, you traitor! Turncoat!"

Gakupo stood up and Luka dropped Picaro to the ground. The cat wandered off as they wrapped their arms around each other.

Gakupo breathed deeply. The smell of her hair was some kind of fruit and it made him feel empty and passionate.

"So, you had a rough day? Wanna talk about it?" Luka led Gakupo over to her bed where she shuffled aside some papers to make room for him to sit. She hadn't used the bed in a few days, but who needs sleep when they're not an organic life form?

"Not with anyone but the Master so far, but I'll make an exception on one condition." Gakupo said as he began organizing and stacking sheets of paper from the bed.

Luka normally dreaded the term "condition" and she made an inward groan, but she knew Gakupo wouldn't make her do anything she didn't want to.

Gakupo finished moving enough paper for someone to lie down on the bed, and he patted the edge with his open palm.

The meaning was clear. "Sit here."

Luka sat tensely at the edge of the bed and Gakupo wrapped his arms around her and laid her down. He hugged her, and then flopped down in the bed, holding her like a teddy bear.

Luka blushed. She was not ready for any kind of passionate love yet! She had to get into the mood first!

But Gakupo wasn't feeling the mood either. He just wanted the security of her in his arms.

"I'm warning you Luka, you may think less of me."

Luka looked at him inquisitively. "What did you do?" She asked.

So Gakupo told her in as much detail as he could stand. He felt his hands clutching her arms tighter as his story went on and every time he would stop telling his tale, let go, apologize and continue. By the end his voice was rough with shame, and he was tired. He was convinced that Luka would be disappointed with him, even if she didn't show it.

Luka wasn't disappointed, she stroked his hair and felt how ashamed he was and she was sad. She wished that he could somehow forget, or somehow erase the shame he felt so that he could go back to being Gakupo.

There was no shame to being beaten by ten people in an unfair fight, Luka would have told him that to, but she knew that that was not what he wanted to hear. If she was going to help him out of his funk, she would have to be clever.

"You said you got a movie?"

"Yeah."

"Which one?"

"Um, some American horror film, and the Nutcracker suite."

"And you still have them?"

"Yeah, they were still in the bag wrapped around my arm."

"Can I watch them with you?"

Gakupo thought for a moment. Both movies seemed uncharacteristic for Luka, but he couldn't see any harm in the two of them watching them.

"I suppose so."

Luka smiled and Gakupo was temporarily dazzled by the sincere joy in her eyes and her sparkling white teeth. "Awesome, I'll go make some popcorn and you can set it up."

Gakupo headed down stairs and with wobbly legs put the disc into the home entertainment center that was set up in their living room. Teto and Ted were in the final rounds of a monopoly game they had set up just after Gakupo left earlier and became curious.

"Whacha watching?" Teto Kasane asked winding her corkscrew pigtail around her ring finger.

"An American horror film called Halloween."

Ted chimed in "I LOVE that one! Mind if we stay and watch?"

"Not at all."

Len came down from the third floor and exclaimed "Awesome, that's my favorite! Hang on! Don't play it yet, I'll go get Rin!" and with that he raced up stairs two at a time crying "RIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNAH! RIIIIN!"

Ted murmured to himself "Len loves American movies…"

Luka came and sat down with a mammoth bowl of popcorn and leaned against Gakupo who was right in the middle of the couch. Gakupo put his arm around her and smiled a little.

Just then Gumi started banging pots and pans together and marched around shouting "I've just baked a cake, now come and EAT it!"

When Gumi passed the small group forming at the couch she exclaimed. "Awesome movie night! Don't play it yet, I'll go get Miku, Haku, Master… I'll get them all!"

So while the previews droned on for about five minutes, Gumi served every person a slice of chocolate cake with strawberries, Luka divided the popcorn into dozens of smaller bowls, Master, Rin and Miku brought countless pillows and blankets out of their rooms and made themselves comfortable right directly in front of the T.V. and Gakupo's private movie time became a major family production.

But surprisingly Gakupo didn't mind. He was happy to have so many people around; in fact he helped everyone find a seat before the movie started.

Then someone killed the lights and the scary theme music began to play.

In the light from the T.V. all of the Vocaloids threw scary shadows across their blankets and into the hallway and before the end of the first scene, Luka was grabbing on to Gakupo's jinbaori in fear.

The little child in the mask stabbed the teenager over and over, and Luka gave a little shriek with each one but she never looked away. Gakupo found himself with his arms around her shoulder trying to stop her shaking.

Thankfully after the first scene, the movie quieted down, but Gakupo had the feeling that suspense was building up. He could see the car following the three American teenagers and was wondering if at any second Michael Myers would jump at them from around one of the thick, tall hedges. Once a tree moved in front of the camera and it scared the hell out of him, but he tried his hardest not to jump.

After about a half hour of suspense building, Michael Myers finally killed somebody, and Rin jumped almost a foot in the air squealing, and making everybody jump back and scream.

Len had decided that the first murder would be a good time to use a bicycle pump to blast cold air in her face. He was wrong because she had kicked him in the face by accident when she had leapt in terror.

Rin called him a bunch of names and stormed upstairs angrily, but Gakupo laughed. He felt GOOD! He had almost forgotten why he'd been upset, but the feeling was still there; rippling beneath the surface.

When Michael Myers stared to chase after Laurie Strode more than one Vocaloid started to root for her out loud, bouncing up and down.

"Run RUN RUN!" Miku cried as Laurie beat against the door of the house.

"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!" Gumi mumbled in rapid succession as Michael strolled across the street in the shadows.

"Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!" Teto hooted while leaning over one arm of the couch.

Luka dug her nails into Gakupo's shirt, stretching the fabric way out, and prayed "Please don't let him get her. TELL me he doesn't get her…!"

Gakupo had to catch himself from spoiling the ending for Luka, so he found himself rubbing her shoulders saying "It's only a movie. It's not real."

Luka turned to him; her eyes glimmered with the reflection from the television and the dim gray glow casting her face in a deathly parlor. At that moment Laurie screamed and Gakupo inexplicitly felt his blood run cold.

"If it were real, would you leave me alone?"

"Of course not!" Gakupo assured her looking into her eyes with conviction.

"If you heard me scream, would you come to help, even if Michael Myers was there?"

"Of course!"

Luka leaned against his chest like a pillow and shut her eyes. "Would you protect me?"

Gakupo hugged her for the third time that day and said "Of course, I would never let him hurt you! No matter what!" His voice vibrated and the rumbling in his chest gave him strength.

Luka looked up to him and smiled. "I know you wouldn't."

Luka suddenly leaned in for a kiss and Gakupo was almost caught by surprise. He kissed back passionately, leaning into the figure of her body pressed against his.

They might have kissed for longer, if several Vocaloids could have suppressed their snickers.

Len cleared his throat "Ahem," and Sweet Ann made kissy noises while many girls snickered in front of the television.

Luka broke away embarrassed and Gakupo suppressed a sigh. He was slightly peeved with the immaturity in the younger Vocaloids, but he supposed he had it coming making out right behind them and all.

And in the middle of the scariest scene too!

Halloween ended with a cliff hanger and many of the Vocaloids in the front row were trembling in fear.

"Look guys," Master tried to explain to them for the umpteenth time that night before sending them all off to bed.

"It's just a movie; I saw another movie with a bunch of the same actors! And even if it were real, WHICH IT IS NOT, Michael Myers would have to get across the Pacific Ocean to get to any of you, whom he has never even heard of—"

"How can he not have heard of us?" Miku cried indignantly. "We're Vocaloid! World famous!"

"Michael Myers does not have a computer, nor does he keep up with recent trends. He only wants to kill his family. And not you."

"He killed that one chick who wasn't his family." Len added chuckling. He knew that the movie was fake, but he wanted the other Vocaloids to panic and worry so he could play a prank later.

"He killed her because she would have helped Laurie Strode! Stay away from Laurie Strode and you'll be fine!" Master was getting aggravated and she rubbed her temples with her black finger tips leaving five black smears of oil or grease. "PLEASE just go to bed."

"We CAN'T go to bed now!" Teto complained. "We've had so much sugar, and seen so many awful things that we'll have nightmares for sure!" Teto gave a dramatic shudder and the other Vocaloids nodded in agreement.

"Well whose fault is it that you had so much –"Master started but then was cut off by Luka chiming in

"Um, it's not TOO late. Maybe we could watch the other movie?" She said waving around The Nutcracker suite.

Master grinned "That's perfect! The nutcracker suite will give you great dreams! Sugar or none! Pop it in!"

So Luka Switched the DVDs and Gakupo found himself being drawn back to the couch while classical music played softly in the back ground and several Vocaloids started humming their favorite tunes beneath their breath as they settled back down into their pillows and blankets.

Teto, sulking, sat down beside Ted and pretended to be mad but she eventually found herself happily enjoying the previews before too long.

Rin wordlessly came down stairs and sat beside Len again, and when he tried to apologize she punched him in the arm and said "Apology accepted. Don't do it again."

The opening act for the ballet was performed in front of a brilliant gold and rosy pink backdrop which dazzled most of the Vocaloids at first, but before Drosselmeyer even appeared, Teto was fast asleep and leaning against Gakupo's leg.

By the middle of the first act, Led and Ted were the same. It was only the firing of the pistol of the Nutcracker that woke them just enough to crawl up to their beds.

The Nutcracker fought the mouse king and Gakupo found himself giving the Nutcracker tips in his head.

"No, don't hold your sword like that, if you have a gun use it!" It was the only way he could keep himself awake.

In Act two the Nutcracker takes Clara to his world after turning into a handsome prince and the back drop changes into a beautiful winter castle and Gakupo felt his eyelids getting heavy. Luka had leaned against him earlier and hadn't moved since, so he had the sneaking suspicion she was asleep.

Gakupo watched the Spanish dance and then the Arabian dance with its lulling, dreamy tune and almost drifted off, except Rin stirred briefly and started talking in her sleep. "Nii-chaaaa…"

It sounded like she was trying to say "onii-chan" But Gakupo wasn't sure. He listened closely while the mischievous sounding Chinese dancer's song tweeted and the lighting changed from dull glow, to bright.

"I hope that we 're good friends in anuther life, so god brought ush back as uh family." Rin half-snored, Half-mumbled.

Gakupo was touched! "She was so sweet and sincere! Even asleep! What a beautiful though to have in a passing dream!" He felt his chest get hot with warm fuzzy sentiment.

The loud, fast paced song that Gakupo thought was called "Trepack" woke Rin up slightly and she followed after her brother up stairs and to bed.

"I guess that 'The Nutcracker suite' really does give good dreams." Gakupo smiled in the dark and settled in the spot where he'd been sitting in for three hours trying to get comfortable. He was lodged in between Gumi who was drooling on his left shoulder and Luka who was leaned up against his chest and he was stiff and sore.

Gakupo fell asleep somewhere in between the scene with the clowns and the Waltz of the Flowers. He was the last Vocaloid awake and only the Master, who had experience staying awake past the point where all others would have fallen asleep, was awake to see Clara return to the gold and rose Backdrop that was her home.

The Master wandered in the dark, stepping over some Vocaloids and stopping to pull sheets and covers over the rest. Silently she took the DVD out and put it back in its case and turned off the T.V. then she stealthily made her way to the basement that had become her lab/ habitat.

She looked briefly over the half-built animatronics that she had been constructing and shuddered. They were pieces of arms and heads and torsos that she had built out of nothing. When she worked straight through a project without stopping, she hardly noticed the thing taking shape until it was done, and then it was beautiful. But right now they were just creepy in the dark.

She smoothed her hair back, running long black trails of grease through her ruddy ginger hair. Every step in the basement echoed and it filled her with unease.

She leaned against her desk thinking hard.

"Hotaru?"

Her enormous computer screen that took up most of one whole wall blinked to life and a female voice answered "Yes, Master."

Hotaru was another invention of her own devising. She was a computer program that organized files, took voice commands, and could even be given direction, without the use of computer code. She was basically a translation device for Japanese to computer code and could do just about anything.

She was not a Vocaloid. Her voice was a created by the Master, but it had no devices for singing or song, and unlike other Vocaloids, or even Gary the spider who lovingly nudged at the Master's shin, she had no intelligence of her own. No way to think or develop thoughts, she only took orders; though occasionally Master would program her to demand a "Please" and "Thank you" when the other Vocaloids used her.

Hotaru was connected to every computer that every Vocaloid used. From the Personal computers in each of their rooms, to the web searching devices on their phones, Master had made Hotaru as an App and forced every Vocaloid to download her.

Hotaru was also on the Vocaloid Correspondent's computers too. The Vocaloid Correspondent's or VocaCo. for short , were interns in computer sciences and robotics that the Master had taken in after she began project Vocaloid. She had taught them each how to keep the Vocaloids robots bodies healthy but she made sure never to teach them everything that went into making a Vocaloid. Just in case they decide they want to steal her idea. They now helped her with marketing Vocaloids, creating new instruments for songs, and various other odd jobs that come with creating a few dozen world famous superstars.

"Hotaru, connect me with VocaCo Hache via the portal." To keep from having their identities and locations discovered, the Master had used different letters, words, and even symbols from other Languages. Hache was Spanish for "H" and H was the eighth letter in the alphabet, and Dr. Evil was the eighth intern she took. The portal meant using the cameras mounted on top of their computers. Master just thought it sounded cool saying 'portal'.

Suddenly an older man appeared on the enormous computer screen. "What can I do for you Doctor?"

Doctor Evil was given an unfortunate name by birth, because as he aged he really began to LOOK Evil. His black hair was slicked back away from his face and streaked with gray locks of hair; he also had on new pointed-rim glasses that lit up against the glow of the computer screen making his lenses glow. But Master knew that he was one of the kindest people ever to walk the streets of Tokyo.

"Evil, we have a problem."

Dr. Evil was perplexed. "On my side or your side?" He thought he was in trouble, or had done something wrong.

"Both. Something is targeting my children." Master never refers to the Vocaloids as her children in front of them, but Dr. Evil knew just how much each of them meant to her. Whenever he would make a mistake in repairing a broken body part he would not only be scolded fiercely, but also smacked on the back of the head.

"What is it?"

"That's what I was hoping you'd tell me."


	5. Chapter 5

Gakupo stretched and headed downstairs. He'd woken up inexplicably in his bed, though he could have sworn he'd fallen asleep watching the Nutcracker Suite with the other Vocaloid.

Gakupo made a bee-line for the kitchen. He was starving and as he passed the clock he saw why. It was 12:30! He'd been asleep for almost twelve hours! Gakupo shook his head and promised to set an alarm clock for tomorrow.

As he entered the kitchen he found Luka busy cooking an omelet and he reflexively grinned. She looked so cute just standing there! So sweet and homey! It was really unusual for her to cook anything that required more attention than cup ramen, but she would generally make an exception for tuna only. She must have really been craving an omelet.

"Good Morning Gakupo! How did you sleep?" Luka smiled and Gakupo once again felt dazzled by the simple flash of her white teeth and the merry glow in her eyes.

"I slept like the dead, how about you?" Gakupo stretched and leaned over the counter to watch Luka in the final stages of omelet making.

I had wonderful sleep, but the craziest dreams!" Luka exclaimed as she flipped the omelet unto a paper plate.

"Would you tell me about them?" Gakupo asked as she began to rummage for a fork.

"Not for one-million dollars." Luka found her fork and went over to the table to eat. She had actually had a dream similar to the Nutcracker suite, only instead of a nutcracker it was Gakupo the whole time, and instead of a mouse king it was a cat, and several other differences that made the dream really weird. The twins were the clowns and Meiko and Kaito were doing the Arabian dance; Luka had no idea her mind could be so clever, but she hoped she would never have the dream again. It was too weird the first time.

"Oho!" Gakupo exclaimed picking up a fruit and joining Luka at the table. "If you don't want to tell me, I must have been in it. Right?"

Luka felt like spitting out her omelet. She had given him all the verbal clues he needed and now he had the right to try and pick out the truth.

"Maybe." She said trying to think of a way to lie to him if he asked more about the dream.

"I'll bet that it has something to do with the Nutcracker… Right?" Gakupo asked smiling slyly.

This time Luka DID spit out her omelet. She stood up gasping "How did you KNOW?" until she saw him chuckling.

"I just guessed, but it looks like I was spot on."

Luka sat down sulkily. Her reaction had given herself away. Some liar she was. She grudgingly took a bite of her omelet.

Gakupo patted her wrist. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry. And I CERTAINLY didn't mean to be right."

Luka smiled. "It's okay. Just never be right again."

Gakupo laughed and Luka giggled. There was something about that day that seemed to radiate with a strange, familiar good feeling. Gakupo couldn't quite place his finger on the sensation, but it was a cheery, mirthful happiness. Maybe that was the power of the Nutcracker? It sucks away bad dreams and blows in good feelings.

"Oh my GOSH!" Rin called out from the front door. "Everyone come as FAST AS YOU CAN!" Gakupo and Luka trotted at a fast pace to the front of the house where Rin had flung the door open and was standing there letting rushed of icy cold wind in.

Gakupo angrily scolded "Rin what are you doing? You're letting in the cold air!" But he stopped when he looked outside.

The whole world had taken on a white shawl, or at least, that's what it looked like. Perfect, fresh, untouched white snow blanketed the ground and sparkled in the sunlight.

Rin's eyes were as big as dinner plates and sparkling with childlike innocence. "It's snow! It snowed! Oh, Len-kun, look! It's the magic of the nutcracker! I just know it! It brought one of our good dreams to life!"

Len sighed and shivered. "I'm dreaming of a thick coat, some mittens and a snowman later, but for right now, close the door!"

Rin shut the door and Gakupo wondered how she could wear shorts that cut off at her thigh, and not be cold? He was wearing long sleeves and he was freezing!

"We've GOTTA get out there and PLAY!" Rin cried tugging on Len's sleeve.

"First we have to get warm clothes, you don't want to freeze your circuits and break down, do you?" Len warned her as he grabbed her hand and lead her up stairs.

"No Len." Rin answered glumly as they walked out of sight hand-in-hand.

Gakupo looked outside the window once more. Sure enough overnight the sleepy town turned into a winter wonderland. The snow was unseasonably early this year.

"Another sign of Global climate change." Gakupo thought sarcastically as he took a bite out of his grapple. Then he looked down and realized he was eating a grapple.

Grapples are genetic mutations that create a fruit that looks like and apple and tastes like a grape. They were supposed to come in packages of four, but this grapple was mixed in with the normal apples.

Gakupo had his qualms about eating the genetic mutation of ANYTHING, but since he was already half way done with the fruit, and it was really tasty he decided to go ahead and finish it.

"Maybe we should get out there and have some fun?" Luka suggested leaning over him to take a look out the window at the snow. Her hair fell over Gakupo's shoulder and he felt the electricity run down his neck and down his back.

"I think we could still have a lot of fun inside as well." Gakupo laughed to himself thinking about how crazy he was for trying to make a move over something as simple as the first snow fall. And right after breakfast too!

"Like what?" Luka asked, not grasping Gakupo's feelings and making him feel guilty for teasing her when she sounded so innocent.

Gakupo turned his neck and planted a kiss on her lips and felt a rush as the taste of grape from his mutant fruit melded with the salt from her eggs. It was a disharmonic taste, but for Gakupo it was the sweetest thing he had ever had.

Luka jumped back in surprise. She was yet again caught off guard by Gakupo, but that didn't make the kiss any less welcome.

Gakupo stood up and Luka jumped back into his kiss eagerly. It was a beautiful morning, they both thought as they stood in the sunlight coming in from the white, white world.

"I couldn't imagine being happier anyplace else." Gakupo thought as Luka's slender fingers slid over the back of his neck.

"He tastes like the forbidden fruit." Luka mused as she pressed against his body, relishing in the sweet familiar taste of some kind of fruit that she couldn't quite grasp the name of.

"Ahem?" Master had been standing in the door way of the kitchen for quite some time and to say the least she had watched the entire development.

Gakupo and Luka both turned red and broke away from each other and Gakupo sighed. They NEVER got to finish what they started together. Something ALWAYS got in the way.

"I hate to crash this make-out fest." The Master said grinning. "But Gakupo, you and I had an appointment that you're really late for."

Gakupo gasped. He'd forgotten about the full-system scan for him today. He'd forgotten about a lot of yesterday sometime during his sleep, but now that he was reminded all of the insecurity and worry resurfaced.

"Oh, right." He frowned and bit his lip. Full-system scans for Vocaloids could sometimes take all day, even with the Master's super scanner that could search hundreds of files and memories at a time and they were tediously boring.

The Vocaloid brain was basically a super-condensed computer brain with programs for emotion and movement and what not, but memories alone took up billions of gigabytes of data and had to be scrutinized as well as scanned.

Gakupo could already tell that he was in for a long, boring day of sitting in the dark basement, plugged into Hotaru watching Master work on other robots and waiting for something to pop up.

"Come on." Master said pointing to the basement door. "If we start right this second, maybe we could both have tomorrow off."

Gakupo looked back at Luka, and he saw disappointment in her eyes, but not enough to protest to the Master.

He kissed her one more time. "Make a snowman and name it after me, okay?"

"Why?"

"So we can still spend the day together."

Luka laughed and her laughter rang like bells. She laughed so hard she cried and Gakupo listened to it as he descended the stairs into the dark, dank depths of the Vocaloid Family basement.

The deeper he went, the worse his mood became. "Are you sure we have to do this today?" he asked catching sight of some new robotic body parts lying on the white operating tables.

Master nodded and removed a white cloth from one of the tables. Beneath it was a robot that looked as though it was straight from the "Terminator" movies.

"We have to do it today. I have some… business to attend to tomorrow. And besides," She added while pulling a chair over to a dark corner near the computer screen and motioning Gakupo to sit down.

"If they put anything into you're files, you're going to want me to catch it before it has time to take affect and fester. "

Gakupo shuddered. Fester. How could a computer program fester?

"One time, a fan girl who worked in a ramen shop tricked Len into letting her upload something into his system that made him crave ramen. Every day he went to the ramen shop until I figured out what was up and had the girl arrested on criminal tampering."

The Master nodded proudly "THAT'LL teach her to stick something where it doesn't belong!"

Gakupo rolled his eyes. That was so like their Master. Gakupo sat in the chair and found it fairly comfortable. It was plush, which was a good thing because he had a feeling he would be there for a while. He plugged in a short, fat wire and a thin, circular wire and Hotaru lit up with recognition.

"Welcome, Gakupo. What can I do for you today?"

"I'd like a full system scan." Gakupo called into the monitor. He didn't know why, but he always felt as though Hotaru couldn't hear him on the big monitor, though he practically whispered to her on his phone.

"What's the magic word?" Hotaru pressed.

"Please." Gakupo said weakly.

"Thank you, here are the document's scanning windows."

Master stepped before the monitor and pulled out her wireless keyboard. "Hotaru, open the search refiner."

Nothing happened. For a moment Master was perplexed, but then she sighed "Please?"

"Yes master."

Gakupo laughed, despite himself. "Ha-ha, not funny when it happens to you, is it?"

However Master was no longer paying any attention to Gakupo, she was hypnotized by the images on the screen.

"Search refine: Files uploaded in the past thirty six hours… That deviates from the standard memory uploading program… and have an unregistered file name." Master mumbled to herself while rapidly typing in computer code.

Hotaru chirped in recognition and the screen lit up with Gakupo's most recent memories. He could see image blips from the Nutcracker, from breakfast that morning, and from the alleyway the night before. At first he felt like turning away, for the mere memory made him disgusted at his weakness, but soon he found himself fascinated, like a detective looking over tapes of a crime scene.

Just who were these people? And why the premeditated attack? And why him? Gakupo looked from image to image and was disappointed to find that there was nothing significant that he could use as a clue. All that was showing up on screen was the same as what was in his memory.

"Of course it was." He scoffed at himself silently "These ARE my memory, you fool."

"No, nononono NO!" Master was typing away at the keyboard so fast her fingers were blurs. All at once Gakupo's stomach sank as though somebody had dropped a stone into it.

"What? What is it?" He cried as Master's face became frenzied and wild.

"Hotaru is saying that all of your memories are rewrites and that none of them are using the Vocaloid standard memory format! Whatever they put in you is corrupting your memories for the past two days!"

"What does that mean?" Gakupo cried, his head suddenly swimming. He knew what it meant. Every Vocaloid knew what it meant, but he couldn't bear to say it. His brain wouldn't form the words.

"Gakupo, you have a virus!"

Suddenly the full impact of last night's confrontation hit Gakupo. A Virus. He had a virus. He would no longer be allowed to synch up with the Vocaloid mainframe, just in case the virus was contagious. He would have to hope that Master could eliminate it here and now, or else he might spread it to somebody else, or be quarantined and have to let the virus kill him completely.

Eating him over a course of days and weeks, until his android mind was completely shot and he was virtually unrecognizable.

Gakupo rested his head in his hands. "Can you fix it?" He shuddered as he spoke, so he was surprised with how calmly the words sounded when they came out.

"Master had brought up a swivel chair to sit in and he keyboard rested on her lap as she pecked away at the keyboard furiously. "We'll see." She mumbled.

Master was in her own little world, where sound could hardly reach her. Gakupo knew that once she got focused on something, she would not lose that concentration until she was done with it. This was the same thing. He had no choice but to wait for her to finish, whether she gave him a sad look that says "I can't help you" or that triumphant look that says "I told you I could do anything!"

Gakupo was on pins and needles watching the master work. Her eyes would suddenly dart over to one side of the screen and he would jump, but she wouldn't say anything and continue working.

Gakupo rubbed his hands together, and ran them through his hair. He felt as though he should do something, but what? His adrenaline was rushing and he felt as though he should run, or fight or do something. Anything! But he was glued to the spot by his wires and by his fear.

Suddenly he felt a biting on his left foot. "Ye-ouch!" he said aloud. He kicked his foot but the sharp pain continued. Gakupo peeled off his boot thinking he might find a spider or something, but there was nothing on his foot.

Then his right foot started to sting, and then the pain began to spread up his legs. It was unbearable!

Gakupo kicked his feet against each other and held them and did everything he could think of, but the pain only crept up his legs. It felt sharp as an animal bite and it burned like fire.

"Master! What are you doing?" Gakupo cried against his clenched teeth. All of the muscles in his legs had seized up against the pain and it was hard to stay in the chair.

"Please, stop. My legs!" Gakupo tried to call out but a sudden wave of more intense pain made him groan in agony.

Master took one look at Gakupo and then set back to her keyboard faster than ever.

"Great, she's ignoring me." Gakupo thought as the agony became unbearable. His mind went blank and all he could focus on was the pain. He had a brief sense of how disastrous the situation was, but all that mattered at that moment was pain. And relief from the pain.

Gakupo slid out of his chair upon the floor and was held up only by the wires in his back. Master jumped out of her chair and sent it sliding across the floor into the operating tables of half-built body parts. She picked up Gakupo and set him back in the chair as quick as she could, then she sat upon the floor and continued typing.

She was almost finished.

Gakupo screamed behind her and she jumped. It was the most horrible sound she had ever heard, mostly because she knew how strong and happy he was normally. She bit her lip and continued typing; all the while her heart was breaking. He had a strong voice, which was laced with pain and an empty sort of suffering. Master almost stopped breathing she was so shocked.

"Done!" she cried clicking the enter button and Hotaru chirped with recognition as the program came to life.

All at once the pain melted away and Gakupo sank into the chair. He didn't know if his legs were damaged from the pain. He didn't feel anymore biting sensations, but it wasn't like he felt relief either. It was just gone.

"Well…" Master wanted to say something but the silence that hung in the air said enough. What had happened? What had gone wrong?

"Go upstairs and um… have a nice day." Master said unplugging the plugs from Gakupo's ports. Gakupo said nothing, but gingerly shifted his weight to his legs. He walked carefully, like a cat up the stairs.

"Oh, and Gakupo?" Master tried to think of how to tell Gakupo this carefully, but the words stumbled out of her mouth on their own accord. Gakupo turned around and waited for her to say something. By the look on his face, Master knew he was waiting for more bad news.

"You can't hook up to the Vocaloid mainframe, but I won't give up on you. We'll fight this thing together and we'll win."

Gakupo was crestfallen "You mean you didn't get it? Just now?"

"No. The virus had a program that if I tried to delete it, I would end up deleting you're motion stimulators instead. I couldn't find the virus, only the fake programming. Whoever did this is amazing with this technology." But Gakupo didn't stay to hear Master ramble on. He had all that he needed to know. He wasn't going to be rid of this virus anytime soon. He was just as good as dead. His chances of recovery were slim to none.


	6. Chapter 6

When Gakupo opened the door to leave the basement he found Luka standing right outside.

"Luka looks petrified, though…" Gakupo thought "I probably don't look any better."

Luka looked as though she was about to cry. Gakupo looked as though he would melt away at any minute. Gakupo reached out for Luka and Luka tackled him around the middle in a great bear-hug.

They went and sat in the living room silently. None of the other Vocaloids bothered them, though they could hear them outside screaming and playing in the snow.

Gakupo thought "My life is going to end soon, and how am I supposed to feel? I know how serious it is, but I'm not sure if the full weight of it all has hit me yet."

"The end of life." Suddenly Gakupo figured it must have hit him because he slouched over into Luka's shoulder and cried, just a little bit.

Only a tear or two and he didn't sob or breathe hard, but it was impossible to hold back everything. After he finished, he stayed on Luka's shoulder and she petted his hair.

Luka was in distress. She had never, ever seen Gakupo act like this. SHE wanted to cry and SHE wanted to have him pet her hair, but she knew that she needed to be strong. For him now, more than ever.

They sat silently, just like that for no more than two minutes when a Kagamine raced up and pounced on Gakupo's lap.

"Onii-chaaaaaannn!" Rin bounced on his knee like an overexcited kid on the Santa Clause at the mall. Her bony thighs hurt Gakupo's legs and he reflexively brushed her off, sending Rin sliding onto the floor.

Rin had absolutely missed the tension in the air and ignored the adult's agonized expressions and being swept to the floor.

"Gakupo-nii, we need you to take us shopping today!" Rin placed her hands on his knees and gave him what was formally known as the Kagamine-Rin-Puppy-Dog-Stare while begging "Pleeeeeeease!"

Gakupo groaned "Why me? Can't you get Kaito to take you? I-I'm kind of having a bad day."

Rin's eyes began to tear up. Gakupo knew she could cry on command, but he still didn't know what to do about someone crying.

"It was- I just thought… Since it was cold and the first snows fall of the year, everyone might want to do their Christmas shopping together." Rin blubbered as fake tears rolled down her cheeks. "It's not every one without YOU onii-chan."

Gakupo sighed. HE should be the one crying. All he wanted was to take a personal day to sit in his room and think. But Rin took that sigh as an admission and in a flash she was upstairs screaming "He said yes, YES! Come on everybody, grab your winter coats!"

Luka held his hand and traced her fingers along the bones in his hand.

She shot him a sideways glance that said "Are you sure you want to go out today, all things considering?"

Gakupo slipped her an apologetic face. "Too late now." He said in submission.

Luka stood up and dusted her skirt off. "Okay then, I'm going to. But first I'll need a coat." And she walked up stairs and out of his sight.

Luka's room was right next to Meiko's at the end of the hallway. This morning when Luka stepped outside she stepped on Kaito who had been camping out in front of Meiko's room for several days.

Kaito had tried almost everything to get Meiko to come out and face him; He'd apologized for everything he could think of, he'd tried to bait her with food, he'd tried to sing an apology song, but he was only met with silence. Or worse, her air-horn.

Luka walked into her room, and then stepped back out again. "Why waste your time? She doesn't want to see you. Why don't you give up on her and accept that you two have broken up? "

Kaito looked at her sadly. He'd wondered the same thing a few times, but he always made it to the same conclusion which made it impossible to quit on Meiko.

"You just wouldn't get it… When I'm with her, nothing in the world can compare… It's like electricity courses through me, and it's bliss. When I see her face, I feel so… elated! And when I touch her I'm flying… You just wouldn't underst- " At this point in Kaito's speech, Meiko blasted her air horn which was so loud it shook the door.

"BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AH!"

Kaito tried to scream over the air horn, but Luka couldn't hear what he was saying. It didn't matter. She was still thinking about what he said. It sounded exactly like how she felt about Gakupo.

Gakupo. Luka collapsed into her bed and almost before she hit the smooth, cool sheets she began crying. She burrowed her head into the pillow and decided to cry until she felt better.

It didn't take long for Luka to release all of her pent up feelings on her pillow; she was extremely out of practice when it came to crying. In fact, Luka couldn't remember a time when she HAD cried this much. EVER.

When Luka was done her pillow was soaked through with tears and her hair was matted to her face, sticking to the moisture. Sighing she stripped her pillow case and tossed it indiscriminately into the growing dirty clothes pile.

Luka fished into her closet and changed into a pair of simple blue jeans and a green over coat that would keep her warm.

Before she left her room, she checked herself in the mirror. Yikes! Her eyes were still puffy and her face was still red.

She didn't want Gakupo to see her so distraught. It would have only depressed him, so she opened her window and let a stern, cold gust of air tear through her room. Her sheets of music were blown up in a tornado, but Luka could have cared less. She had just finished recording that song.

She grabbed a handful of snow from her window sill and rubbed it all over her face. Around her eyes the biting cold froze her tears and on her cheeks the snow chilled her hot face.

When the snow had melted in her hands into a puddle on the floor, Luka looked in the mirror again. She looked mostly normal, except for her nose which was red and ruddy. And her hairs around her face which were still plastered to her cheeks. Scowling, Luka took her hair brush and tried to make herself presentable.

Luka didn't know how likely it was that Gakupo would…wouldn't make it, from the virus. But Luka refused to think negatively and assured herself that he would be fine.

But a little worm of doubt crept into her thoughts. She batted it away, but it resurfaced again. "What if he isn't? You'd better make his last few days memorable."

Luka began to cry again and hid he face in the puffy, warm sleeves of her coat.

"He CAN'T be dying. He CAN'T be!" She thought choking back a sob. "We just, I just… I JUST told him I love him. He JUST told me he loves me. This CAN'T be happening."

Meanwhile Gakupo was in his room meditating. He decided to change into street clothes as well, since it was obvious his Samurai outfit would not be enough to keep him warm, but he found himself just sitting on the floor in a stupor.

Picaro the cat had taken the opportunity to sit on Gakupo's lap, curl up and try to sleep but Gakupo would absentmindedly pet the cat every so often making sleep impossible.

"Dead." Gakupo couldn't imagine being dead. Sure, he'd heard about life after death and reincarnation and Heaven and Nirvana and so forth, but as an android would human religion apply to him? Gakupo liked to think that Vocaloids had a soul, but did they? It was one thing to philosophize about the nature of the soul and where Vocaloids stood in the world, but Gakupo was faced with it. He stood face to face with his maker, and judgment and whatever and now was the time to get answers, or lack thereof.

Gakupo tickled Picaro behind the kitten's ears and the kitten made a slightly indignant noise, but Gakupo noticed that the meow sounded like a few notes from "the disappearance of Hatsune Miku." Gakupo had actually been thinking about that song and now he decided to sing it in a hushed tone, so that nobody else could hear.

"Even music fetters my body now. Every time I wish for a miracle, I get denied. I'm sorry. Whenever I remember your sweet face, I hear the sound of tearing breaking memories. Heart-groping, the oncoming end…" Gakupo stuttered out the last notes and felt a renegade tear slip from the corner of his eye.

If he'd been told that in a few weeks he would get blown up, or in a few weeks he'd be hit by a car; that would have been fine. But everyone knew that getting a virus was an awful way to die.

To Gakupo, a virus was THE most awful way to die. Letting memories and personality deteriorate until the Vocaloid is little more than a babbling idiot, then emotions and motor functions will deteriorate until the Vocaloid is just an empty vessel. A giant, human-shaped doll with nothing inside.

Gakupo shuddered. It was a God-awful way to die.

The kitten stared at him with its huge, glossy blue eyes. To Gakupo that face said one thing: "Well, I see you're disturbed. Are you about to get over it or what?"

Gakupo chuckled. He'd been feeling so crummy, but imagining Picaro talking to him made him almost insanely happy. He was almost giggling like one of the Vocaloid girls. He DID start giggling. It was a manic, crazy sound and it scared Gakupo. He quickly stopped, but he couldn't help feeling better. Just laughing had lightened his spirits.

Gakupo pushed Picaro off of his lap, and then he remembered Rin. As Picaro glared at Gakupo while exiting his room, Gakupo hunted around his room for a fresh pair of pants and a winter coat.

"So I'm going to die." Gakupo stated to himself aloud. "I'll be DAMNED if I start crying again, and I'll be damned if I make Luka cry."

"What was that human saying?" Gakupo thought finding a pair of sturdy blue jeans. "You only live once, have no regrets." Gakupo didn't know for sure, but it sounded about right. He said it aloud and he decided it had a nice ring to it.

"No regrets." He murmured pulling out a maroon jacket with faux fur lining. If THIS didn't keep him warm he didn't know what would.

He also decided that he would find a great Christmas present for Luka. He shouldn't have any trouble, it was only mid-November.

Gakupo wondered why the Kagamines wanted to go shopping so early. It surely wasn't because it was only the first snowfall, was it?

Gakupo started for the stairs, when he looked down the hall and saw Kaito.

He was sitting right outside Meiko's door like her loyal dog. Gakupo felt so sorry for him. He walked up and patted him on the shoulder.

"Hey, buddy… You've got to get out of the house." Gakupo said sincerely.

Kaito nodded, but wasn't really listening to Gakupo. He was thinking. Meiko had blasted the horn while he was talking about their relationship, which meant that he had struck a chord somewhere. She still felt the same way about him, he was sure of it.

Then why wouldn't he let him in? It was all so frustrating! Kaito let Gakupo pick him up by the arm and dust him off, but he didn't hear a word Gakupo said until "Then maybe she'll let you in."

Kaito did a double take "Say what?"

Gakupo restated his monologue. "I said it might be good for you to get out of the house. A bunch of us are going shopping and if you want to you could find a really cool Christmas present for Meiko. Then maybe she'll let you in?"

Kaito was euphoric. He was stepping on air when he raced off to his room to find a coat and he barely noticed that he had two mismatching socks on.

Kaito picked up the first blue thing he saw, which was luckily enough a jacket, but then he had some trouble finding his scarf.

"Where could it be?" He asked himself "It's not like I'm ever without it." He demolished half of his room before noticing Luka's little cat asleep on something blue in a corner.

Kaito picked up one end of his scarf and pulled it out from underneath the little cat, which sent the creature tumbling across the floor.

Kaito scratched its head. "Sorry buddy." He apologized to the disgruntled feline "But I need this before I can do something nice for my girl, you understand?"

Picaro may, or may not have understood, but it didn't stop him from shooting Kaito a nasty look on his way out of the room to continue his odyssey for a warm place to sleep.

Kaito leapt from the top of the stairs, more agile than the dancers in the Nutcracker ballet. He landed aptly on his toes and then sprang over to the congregation that was forming in front of the door.

Rin caught sight of Kaito and asked "Are you coming too?" Kaito nodded and Rin handed him a reusable grocery bag.

"Okay, LISTEN UP!" Rin shouted over the Vocaloids that were doing the shopping trip. "Here's how shopping is going to work, each Vocaloid is going to shop, every purchase goes into the cloth bag!" Rin held up her own square, cloth bag that was covered in a floral pattern.

"NO ONE under ANY circumstance can peek in the bags, if a Vocaloid finds another Vocaloid in the store they must leave the area immediately and not return for about five minutes. If a Vocaloid finds another Vocaloid in the checkout line, they must leave and not return until said Vocaloid is done. Anyone who breaks these rules will be water-squirted on the way home!" Rin held up a fully loaded water gun for all the present Vocaloids to see.

Len looked uncomfortable. "I thought we said no water?" He whispered.

"I changed my mind."

"But it's COLD!"

"Then DON'T CHEAT!"

Gakupo looked around. Besides him, Luka, Kaito and the twins there would also be Kasane Ted and Hiyama Kiyoteru.

Hiyama Kiyoteru is a little-known Vocaloid for the Vocaloid 3 series. Officially he is one of the few Vocaloids who have actual jobs. He's a math teacher at the elementary school up the hill from the Vocaloid family house and on the weekends he is the lead singer in the band made of other teachers from the school, called Ice Mountain.

Gakupo remembered he had a very soft voice and was marketed to be the partner of Kaai Yuki, and also for some reason the fans had a violent backlash against his initial programming, though Gakupo couldn't remember why.

Kiyoteru had been with another member of the VocaCo. for a few weeks now. He was getting some new updates from Dr. Evil and he had only returned to the house yesterday.

Kiyoteru fidgeted and wrapped his bag around his wrist. Apparently it had been quite some time since he had been out with several members of the Vocaloid clan, Gakupo could see he was nervous so he smiled and decided to be friendly. After all, he was the new Vocaloid once too.

"Hey! Kiyoteru! How's it been?" Gakupo patted Kiyoteru on the shoulder and Kiyoteru made a face that said he'd rather not be touched. Gakupo's hand slid down by his side as he waited for Kiyoteru's answer, but none came.

So he continued: "It feels like it's been ages since we last worked together. What was that thing called again?"

"Um, you mean the "under the darkness" promo?" Kiyoteru muttered.

Gakupo could sense something was wrong with Kiyoteru; there was something in his face and his voice that said he'd rather not socialize. But Gakupo saw no harm in being friendly.

"Yeah, that was it! How've you been? Is teaching going okay?"

"Yeah… teaching's been fine. Um. Are you…?" Kiyoteru became pale and his voice rose in pitch. Gakupo thought that as Kiyoteru's voice rose he began to sound a bit like Kaito.

"Are you UP to going out today..?" Kiyoteru rocked on his heels "I mean are you feeling okay?"

"Yeah," Gakupo was momentarily confused. Why was Kiyoteru acting as though he had the plague? Then it hit him! He KNEW!

Gakupo grabbed Kiyoteru's sleeve in a moment of panic and pulled him into the hallway.

"Gakupo? Kiyo- ah, I mean Hiyama-sensei? Where are you going?" Rin cried out as she finished passing out bags to the last few Vocaloids. "We're just about to leave!"

"Hiyama-san forgot his wallet." Gakupo growled through gritted teeth. "I'm going to help him look for it."

Gakupo looked over his shoulder and saw Luka giving him a pained, confused look. He turned away, but he could still feel her eyes on his back as he turned the corner.

Gakupo dragged Kiyoteru down the hallway, and then angrily pushed him into the wall. Maybe using a little more force than the samurai initially intended, for Hiyama gave a groan and the shelves in the wall above him shook with the force of the impact.

"Who told you?" Gakupo demanded in a low tone.

"What?" Kiyoteru looked around terrified, his eyes darting upstairs and to the two exits in the hallway.

"About the virus; who told you?" Gakupo demanded leaning into the teacher's face, feeling his hot staccato breathing as he filled with fear. Gakupo was being cruel, and a bully but he didn't care.

"It was… Ahhh, uh! Doctor Evil!" Kiyoteru spat out the name in hopes of getting the intimidating Samurai to at least back up.

Gakupo was almost floored. He did step back from Kiyoteru, but the teacher didn't move from where he was slouched on the wall. He used it as a prop, otherwise he would have slid right onto the floor.

Gakupo covered his face with his hands. One of the VocaCo. members knew, and the only way that Dr. Evil could have found out is if the Master told him. Why would she tell Dr. Evil if she didn't even tell the other family members?

"Who else knows?" Gakupo whispered as someone noisily walked above them on the second floor. Gakupo was on full alert and he knew that he had to cut short this little conversation.

"Um, everyone? Everyone at the other home… do you mean to say..? That these Vocaloids don't know? They don't know about the attack, or anything?" Kiyoteru watched as Gakupo nervously paced in front of the stairs.

Gakupo glared at Kiyoteru and the teacher gasped in surprise. Gakupo had always been a little frosty at first, but he had a warm personality. This was nothing like Gakupo.

Gakupo was mad. But not at Kiyoteru. He was furiously thinking.

Every other Vocaloid probably already knew exactly what had happened to him, so it was only a matter of time before the Vocaloids staying in this house knew. It was no use trying to hide his shame any longer.

But, wasn't Gakupo entitled to at least ONE DAY of peace? All he wanted was to enjoy going out with the family, maybe even get into the Christmas spirit. Just in case…

"Look, only Luka and I know everything, Kaito knows only of the attack. No one knows anything else. Don't tell them."

Gakupo sighed. Kiyoteru was still edging around him nervously, obviously scared.

"Look, I'm sorry. Just give me today. Please. Tomorrow you can tell everyone everything. But they don't know and that's exactly how I want it."

"Okay." Kiyoteru nodded "Your secret's safe. You can trust me."

"Good." Gakupo smiled and bowed his head wearily. He was tired. He had no idea how he was going to get through shopping.

"And I'm sorry for being so rough. I've got a lot on my mind, I wasn't thinking."

"It's okay." Kiyoteru nodded and Gakupo momentarily saw what he figured his students must always see in Kiyoteru. He had a way of being cheery, but impersonal.

"I hope I didn't scare you."

Some of the color returned to Kiyoteru's cheeks. "No not a bit." His voice was high and bore a strong resemblance to Kaito's. Gakupo figured he was lying.

Suddenly Piko, one of the newest Vocaloids released in 2010 raced down stairs and Gakupo suddenly rushed to rejoin the shopping group.

"Pleeeeeeease don't leave me behind! I weally want to go to!" Gakupo had to look twice to check for the mop of white hair to make sure it was really Piko. He had an extremely feminine voice. Not that Gakupo would ever tell the kid that, he was only a year old and already suffering from serious disparity between his western fans and his Japanese fans. He didn't need any more trouble, on top of being the subject of the only legal trouble in the Vocaloid family.

Piko was the first Vocaloid from Sony distribution, and to say the least his mother corporation was overprotective. The original voice bank was only available for five days at a time for crying out loud. When the master made the android body for Utatane Piko, the Sony Corporation sued her for misuse, even though she had asked permission to make Piko and she had documents to prove it.

After a long and frustrating struggle with Sony's army of lawyers Piko was finally and completely his own person, but every now and again the corporation will bully him for money or recognition. Usually after a successful song.

"Pweeease can I come? Pweeeease?" Piko grabbed onto Gakupo's jacket sleeve and looked up at him with tears in his eyes. Piko was the only Vocaloid with heterochromia, or two colored eyes. One of his eyes was blue and the other was green. Gakupo often wondered why, but he had never gotten a straight answer from the Master.

"What are you asking me for?" Gakupo asked Piko, removing his little blue-mittened hands from his jacket sleeve. "Ask Rin, she's running this show."

As if on cue, Rin barked "If you two aren't up here in forty seconds, we are leaving without you!"

Piko walked up to Rin, teary-eyed and without saying one word Rin thrust a bag at him and his face lit up with excitement.

"Oh, boy!"

Gakupo slipped next to Luka and casually wrapped his arm around her waist. Luka looked up at him curiously.

"Did you find it?"

"Find what?" Gakupo said without thinking.

Luka stared at him for a moment without saying anything. Her eyes were filmy and she seemed to be looking through Gakupo instead of at him.

"Hiyama-sensei's wallet."

"Oh, yes. It was in the hallway. Right where he left it." Gakupo slid a glance towards Kiyoteru who met his gaze, then looked down.

"Okay," Rin chirped after making sure Piko had his own wallet "Time to moooove out!"

She threw open the door just as a blast of cold, snowy wind blew into the house. Len and Ted both simultaneously said "Oh my—" and Piko was so startled he fell backwards.

Luka moved closer to Gakupo and he instinctively tried to drape his arm over her shoulder to protect her from the cold. She leaned into his body and Gakupo suddenly thought "I wonder what she want's for Christmas?"

It was just a passing thought, but Gakupo tossed it around a bit in his mind and it began to grow.

What DID Luka want for Christmas? He really didn't know. He figured that maybe when they arrived at the store he would just find something that struck him as perfect.

But what did Luka like? Gakupo knew that Luka liked Salt-water tuna, strawberry shortcake, singing and him, but that wasn't much to go on when it came to buying Christmas gifts.

Edible Christmas gifts were a big no-no, and he figured that Luka had all of the CDs she wanted, plus giving her Gakupo merchandise would be just self-centered; so where did that leave him?

Gakupo mused over what Luka would like all the way to the store. Luka on the other hand knew exactly what she would be getting Gakupo. She saw it in the store catalog that summer, and decided then that it was perfect for him.

Luka had plenty of time to take in the breath-taking winter scenery. The pure fresh snow on the Vocaloid front yard had been tossed away in snowballs, or harvested for snowmen which stood at attention on the side walk while children still collected dirty snow from the streets and roads to throw at the group as they walked by.

All over the little town, city workers were putting up little holiday decorations like snow men and gold stars, and streams of red and green lights that hung down over telephone poles. It wasn't just the Kagamines; everyone had begun to feel Christmas-y after the first snow fall.

Gakupo widow shopped with little interest. He kept comparing what he saw to what he thought Luka would like and he kept on getting frustrated with little luck.

None of the clothes seemed to be in her style, or none of the jewelry was flashy enough. Gakupo realized quickly that shopping for Luka was going to be a tedious challenge.

He sighed. Luka began to panic and worry that Gakupo was distraught about the virus. She tried to brain storm something-anything to make him forget, even for a little while.

After all, how many more memories like todays would they have together?

"No! Don't think like that!" Luka began to feel tears gather in the corners of her eyes and her chest felt warm and tight. She would begin to cry soon if she couldn't get a hold on herself.

They passed by a little bakery and Luka pulled Gakupo away from the group.

"Hold on, Gakupo." Luka had to think fast, in order to get a little private time with Gakupo. "I think I remember Master telling us to pick up some baking flour here at this pastier, won't you come with me?"

Gakupo noticed a little gleam in Luka's eye and he waved good bye to the other Vocaloids.

Rin called back "Remember, we're going to be at Friibee's department store up the hill on Almond; at the corner of Jobs. Meet us there when you're finished."

Luka pulled Gakupo into the bakery and sat him down at one of the ornate little tables. Gakupo let her pull him, but he was confused.

"Does the Master really need flour?" He asked as Luka sat herself down and heaved a huge sigh.

"Maybe." She said "But I'm not going to be the one to pick it up."

Gakupo chuckled, and Luka smiled but Gakupo noticed a sort of tension between them. Luka's smile seemed forced. Or was it just his imagination?

Luka's smile disappeared in one single instant and a shadow seemed to come over her whole face. It wasn't Gakupo's imagination, she was really disturbed.

"So… how are you?" Luka regretted it just as soon as she said it.

"How am I?" Gakupo was beginning to worry. Luka wasn't acting like herself at all.

"I'm doing fine. Honestly I'm doing better." Gakupo said as sincerely as he could, then he reached across the table and took Luka's hand gingerly.

"How are you?" Luka rubbed Gakupo's knuckles absentmindedly. How was she? She wasn't, that's how!

Luka didn't know what to say. Her mind was whirling. She knew exactly how she was, she was an emotional wreck! She was swimming through turmoil! She was about to go crazy! But when she looked at Gakupo's concerned expression, all of her thoughts and words floated away.

And Luka began to cry. Gakupo moved his chair around the table and scooted closer to her and she fell against his chest weeping.

"It's not fair! It's not FAIR!" Luka couldn't believe this was happening; she had always prided herself on being so strong. Now she was crying in Gakupo's lap, in the middle of a public, albeit empty, bakery.

Nothing in the whole world meant as much to her as Gakupo, and nothing else in the whole world would have made her cry. It wasn't fair that fate would take him from her so soon and it wasn't fair that she would have to cry much more before she even began to heal.

Gakupo looked around. The bakery was empty except for the cashier who caught his eye then disappeared into the kitchen.

Gakupo rubbed her arms through her jacket and let her cry. He knew that there was only one cure for pent up tears, and that was time. Luka had to cry, and Gakupo would be right there to comfort her always.

He had promised her that.

"Come on Luka. Please don't cry." Gakupo begged as he softly petted her pink hair. "You're making me a liar."

Luka looked up through her tears and gasped for breath. "What."

"Remember? I promised you that I would never ever make you cry." Gakupo tried to sound calm and keep his tone even, but to Luka it looked as though he was fighting back crying himself. "You're making me a liar."

"Nononono!" Luka shook her head around and tried to mop the tears from around her face. "It's not YOU Gakupo! It's just-"

"It is TOO me. I promised that so long as I live I would never make you cry." Gakupo gently pulled a few locks of hair away from Luka's red face. "I'm not dead yet."

"How can I make you're tears stop?" Gakupo wondered aloud as Luka struggled to get control of her sobbing. Gakupo was right; it wasn't fair of her to act like this in front of him.

A familiar word at the bakery's display case caught Gakupo's attention. Luka sat up and Gakupo slid out of his chair and walked over to the empty cash register. The Cashier had disappeared into the kitchen and Gakupo didn't know how to bring her back without shouting rudely.

Gakupo spotted a hand bell and he smacked it briskly. The bell gave a high, clear chime that echoed in the store.

Almost like magic, the Cashier reappeared in an instant. "Wooooonderful!" She said right off the bat. "How can I help you today?"

To Gakupo she was too cheery to be serious, but she seemed sincere when she described her pastries.

"Might I offer the lady something Chocolate?" She smiled almost painfully wide.

"No, that's okay. I don't think so." Gakupo said trying to ask for a pastry in particular.

"Or maybe something with strawberries?"

"Um, actually we'd like a-"

"Our homemade strawberry glaze is just Wonderful!"

"May we have two of the brioche? For here, please?" The cashier's smile fell a fraction of an inch.

"Of course. I'll get that for you right now honey."

Gakupo took the two plates of brioche over to the table where Luka was choking back the last of her sobbing.

"Here, try this."

Luka looked at him confused. "What is it?"

"It's Brioche. Like from the 'Daughter of Evil'? It's good. Try it!"

Luka took the plastic fork that Gakupo had been given by the cashier and cautiously took a piece of the topknot shaped bread.

The roll was rich and buttery! It was somehow creamy and very dense with a lot of flavor. It reminded Luka of French toast without the syrup.

Gakupo watched her inquisitively. "Is it good?" he asked, even though he knew the answer.

"It's delicious! Oh, it's wonderful!"

The Cashier gave a snicker behind the cash register and Gakupo dug into his roll.

"I knew you'd like it." He smiled as he chewed over his own piece.

Light as air with a buttery crisp outside and a delicate tender inside, Gakupo knew that this was the bakery to frequent for Brioche. It was just as good as he remembered it, if not better.

Gakupo was on his third bite when he heard Luka sniffle. He looked up fearing the worst.

Luka had begun to cry, still chewing on the brioche. Tears streamed down her cheeks and she struggled to swallow over the lump in her throat. She sniffed and covered her face with her napkin, but it was no good. She gasped and let out a sob.

"I'm so sorry Gakupo." She gasped "I tried. I really did, but…" Gakupo once again hugged her tightly. Her coat made it hard to feel her through the layers of fluff.

"I just…" she sobbed.

"I know." Gakupo tried to be kind and give some kind of consolation, but he inexplicably found himself beginning to cry to.

"Stop it!" He thought to himself wiping his eyes on his shoulder. "Men don't cry!" But Gakupo couldn't help thinking just like Luka. It WAS unfair.

"I just wish that… that there was a magic to stop time. You're such a wonderful...p-p" Luka deteriorated into sobs. She cried on Gakupo for more than ten minutes. Then they both sat still, silently.

Both of the brioches went untouched, neither of them were very hungry. The cashier would, every now and again look their way and watch them curiously.

Gakupo held Luka's hand. He wasn't dead yet. That's what he kept thinking about as the seconds ticked onward.

Luka held Gakupo's hand. She was making a rhyme in her head, or really; concentrating hard on anything but The Unjust World. If she looked directly at Gakupo, or thought about… THAT she knew she would begin to cry again.

"I wonder I wonder,

She casts thoughts asunder.

Methinks that the fancy bread

Has danced up to your head."

Just as Luka was in the middle of the last verse of her silly distraction, Kaito and Piko walked into the bakery. The store bell rang and grabbed Gakupo's attention.

"Ah, so this is where you two love birds were." Kaito sighed and Piko ran over to the table.

"Why didn't you try to catch up to us?" He asked, his heterochromic eyes twinkling in the winter sun.

Gakupo found himself unable to answer immediately. He was still choked up, and his voice was too weak to answer. But luckily Kaito chimed in for him.

"I'll tell you why, they were both playing hooky." Kaito bent down to the younger Vocaloid, his eyes shone with a mischievous sparkle. "You'd better not grow up to be like Gakupo onii-chan, he's a samurai delinquent; a ronin!"

Gakupo found his voice: "Shut-up! Lover-boy!"

Kaito laughed. "Okay, but come on. Master has instituted a curfew for five, and it's already four-thirty. We're all heading home."

"Four thirty?" Luka was surprised "Already?"

Kaito nodded. Surprising how fast the days move by in the winter time, it's like magic, to speed everything up.

Luka turned pale. "Yes, it's just like that." She said absentmindedly.

Gakupo paid for the food, and Luka dumped the rest of it in the garbage. Silently they headed out into the snow with Kaito and Piko, and found the entire group outside waiting for them.

"You guys ditched us!" Rin cried indignantly.

"Maybe my gift to Luka was some cake? Did you think of that?" Gakupo said snappishly. He had been worn a little bit thin that day and he couldn't handle anymore roughness.

Ted looked very uncomfortable and Gakupo noticed that he had liquid stains bleeding through his clothes. Apparently he didn't follow the rules, and got squirted.

"It doesn't look like Luka liked your gift." Ted said rudely. Luka shot him a withering glare, but Gakupo noticed he was right. Luka did look distraught, and tired.

Gakupo wrapped his arm around her waist. A move that would normally have generated the electric pulse of attraction, which now was used as a comfort for the both of them.

Silently they walked home. Not even the other Vocaloids talked amongst themselves.

Gakupo had the feeling that they sensed something amiss. The silence was maddening. After all, he wasn't dead yet. It was much too soon to start mourning.

"So… Kiyoteru, what did you get for Yuki?" At the mention of his name, Kiyoteru jumped. But when he looked at Gakupo he cautiously reached into his bag and slowly pulled out a large pink rabbit.

"Ahh, It's cute! She'll love it."

Kiyoteru nodded, but said nothing. "So much for conversation" Gakupo thought.

The group silently made its way down the street, and into the Vocaloid family house. They walked glumly in single file and Gakupo was reminded of a boarding school, with a dozen or so sad children and one strict nun or teacher that kept the students in line.

"Only now that strict teacher is life." Gakupo thought as a few of the shopping crew unloaded some of their merchandise to show each other.

Len held up a huge yellow mug with a black smiley face on the front to show Gakupo. "Do you think Master would like this?"

Gakupo just wanted to escape up to his room and think. He hadn't had anytime to really think about the virus since noon, and he desperately needed just a little bit of alone time to sort out his feelings and maybe get some rest.

"Um, yeah. I think she'll love it." Gakupo said half-heartedly as he tried to slip up-stairs.

"MIKU! Don't come in here! We have your presents here!" Rin screamed out indignantly

Gakupo turned and found Miku coming in from the kitchen; she had a curious expression that Gakupo could only think of as some kind of mixed rage. She shot through the other Vocaloid and walked straight to him, glaring at him with blazing eyes.

She shouted "How could you?"

Gakupo had no idea what he had done to incite Miku's anger, but he didn't think much of it. After all, Miku found something to scream about almost every day. She was never usually really angry, but slight irritations could set her off. Nothing to take seriously. Right?


	7. Chapter 7

Len held up a huge yellow mug with a black smiley face on the front to show Gakupo. "Do you think Master would like this?"

Gakupo just wanted to escape up to his room and think. He hadn't had anytime to really think about the virus since noon, and he desperately needed just a little bit of alone time to sort out his feelings and maybe get some rest.

"Um, yeah. I think she'll love it." Gakupo said half-heartedly as he tried to slip up-stairs.

"MIKU! Don't come in here! We have your presents here!" Rin screamed out indignantly

Gakupo turned and found Miku coming in from the kitchen; she had a curious expression that Gakupo could only think of as some kind of mixed rage. She shot through the other Vocaloid and walked straight to him, glaring at him with blazing eyes.

She shouted "How could you?"

Gakupo had no idea what he had done to incite Miku's anger, but he didn't think much of it. After all, Miku found something to scream about almost every day. She was never usually really angry, but slight irritations could set her off. Nothing to take seriously. Right?

"How could I what, Miku?" Gakupo sighed.

"How could you not tell us?" Miku sobbed.

Gakupo suddenly felt a chill run through his whole body. "It can't be!" he thought as he felt his heart drop into his stomach; and he was filled with the now familiar sensation of dread.

"Did you think you were going to protect us or something by not telling us?" Miku clutched the shirt above her heart and shook her head, sending her two green pig-tails bouncing around.

Gakupo felt light headed. The room spun around and he could faintly make out Kaito, Luka and Kiyoteru's pained expressions. "It- It wasn't you're concern…" he managed to mumble, clutching onto the railing of the stairs for support.

"Not our concern, THEY ARE TARGETING VOCALOIDS!" Miku shrieked and the hairs on Gakupo's arms stood on end. She could be really shrill when she wanted.

The twins, Piko and Ted wore identical confused expressions and Gakupo could only think of how horribly ashamed they all were going to be in just one minute.

"Who is?" Len stepped forward and asked.

Miku opened her mouth to answer, but Luka sharply cut her off "Don't you dare Miku, Don't even try."

Miku fiercely turned and faced Luka, the flames of anger burned brightly in her eyes. In comparison Luka was pale and worn.

"They HAVE to know."

Luka responded just as fiercely "You have no right to be the one to tell them."

Miku reached out and hit Luka across the mouth and everybody gasped. Miku was usually so withdrawn, or laid back. She had never hit Luka, Rin or Len because she considered them siblings.

"I have a right!" Miku began to cry "They almost got me… Luka they had me!" Miku grabbed onto Luka's shoulders and Luka held her against her chest.

"If he knew… that there were people attacking Vocaloids… why didn't he warn us?" Miku sobbed and Gakupo had the sensation of watching the whole scene from very far away. "Why didn't he say anything?"

Miku turned to him, her face red and shiny with tears. "Why, why?"

Gakupo didn't know what to say. His mind was spinning. What a horrible day it had been. The images of Luka crying, and Miku crying and his own tears dripping into the sleeve of his shirt whirled around in his head.

That morning he was told he was going to die in an awful way. He'd made Luka cry and broke his promise to never make her weep and now Miku was blaming him for her near abduction.

"Did they…" Gakupo tried to speak, but his voice came out a hoarse whisper. He waited for saliva in his dry mouth then he tried again. "Did they plug anything into your ports?"

Miku sighed and stared at him. She shook her head "No."

Gakupo sighed in relief and sank to the ground, sitting on the staircase with his head in his hands. He felt as though every eye was staring at him, waiting for an answer, but he had nothing.

So, why didn't you tell anyone Gakupo? Why didn't you warn them of the impending danger? Gakupo imagined cruel voices asking him these questions like snickering lawyers in a legal trial, but he had no answers.

Kaito decided to try and speak up in his defense, but Gakupo knew that he was largely on his own when the first word from Kaito was "Maybe-"

"No Kaito." He snapped. "I owe everyone an explanation. Don't I?" He looked up at Luka and wondered if he looked as haggard as he felt. Luka gave him a sad look.

"It…" Gakupo tried to start but words failed him momentarily "It wasn't easy…"

"Come on now, don't shut down now!" Gakupo thought but he didn't see how he could tell everyone. He would surely die of shame.

"Gakupo doesn't have to tell you all anything." Master was standing in the kitchen with her arms crossed clearly looking displeased "It's his prerogative. And besides, we did warn you all. I sent out a bulletin via Hotaru."

"No one reads those!" Rin complained.

"It is NOT his prerogative!" Miku shouted, with a fresh flow of tears. "It wasn't just him! It concerns all of us! They're after all of us!" Miku fell into Luka's lap "They want Vocaloids, not just him and not just me. All of us."

The room went silent except for Miku's quiet crying. Len was the first person to speak, and he offered no consolation.

"I agree with Miku. If there's something out there after Vocaloids, we all deserve to know ALL about it."

There was a general murmur of agreement and Gakupo knew that he was hung. There would be no way around spilling everything now.

Oddly Gakupo felt better. Knowing that it was out of his hands took the burden of regret away from him. Now there was only the burden of shame.

Gakupo closed his eyes and took a deep breath in. "Yesterday, on my way home from the store about ten people in black masks jumped me, pulled me into their black van, and plugged something into my wide port that not only knocked me out…" Gakupo stopped sheepishly. His pride was screaming at him to stop but he pushed himself on.

"But also gave me a virus that according to Master has been corrupting my data." There was a series of shocked gasps and Luka leaned into Miku, and they both cried on each other.

"There, now that wasn't so hard." Gakupo thought sarcastically, but his shattered pride left a bitter taste in his mouth and he felt numb from the waist down. The worst was over, he knew. Now that the truth was out he wouldn't have to worry about that burden anymore.

"Oh, Gakupo." Miku cried even harder. "I'm so sorry!"

Then Rin began to sob and she fell into Len for support and Piko got caught up in all of the crying. Besides Kaito, Kiyoteru and Gakupo there wasn't a dry eye to be found in the living room.

Gakupo sighed. He STILL didn't know how to deal with crying, but he figure that he'd dealt with all he could handle for one night and headed up to bed while everyone was distracted by their own misery.

On his way upstairs he passed Meiko, who motioned him to be quiet, but he was so surprised when he saw her he shouted "Oh, Meiko!"

Kaito's ears twitched and almost before he registered what he'd heard he found himself running up the stairs two at a time.

Meiko swore and started back to her room as fast as she could, but not fast enough to stay out of Kaito's sight.

As soon as he saw her he cried her name "Meiko!" as if it was the most beautiful name in the world; as if every syllable was pure ecstasy as he drank up her image like a man dying of thirst. But Meiko didn't stop or turn around. She raced right down the hallway to her room with Kaito close on her heels. He tried grabbing her to stop her but he was always just out of reach.

"Meiko, stop!" Kaito was almost right on top of her when she reached her room, she tried to close the door as fast as she could, but Kaito threw his full weight against it to hold it open.

"Just talk to me…!" He said struggling against her strength as she tried to slam the door shut.

"Can't you take a hint?" Kaito had only heard Meiko's voice in songs over the past few days and having her words reach his ears naturally filled his heart with joy, but Kaito didn't just want to see or hear Meiko. He wanted- needed to touch her.

"No, I can't!" Kaito grunted as her forced himself to push harder against the door, and the door began to give way. "Tell me why you're mad so I can spend the rest of my life making it up to you!"

"As if you don't know!" Meiko hissed in anger, but in her heart she began to feel fear. If he could touch her and make her feel the passion and excitement that had made her fall for him in the first place, then it was all over for her.

"Can't you see?" Kaito cried "I really DON'T know! Let me in and let me talk to you about it!" Kaito was pushing with all of his weight and all of his force. He was leaning so hard against the door he was almost parallel to the floor.

Meiko suddenly let go of the door and Kaito collapsed to the floor; half-in, half-out of Meiko's bedroom. He looked up and saw various wrappers of junk food, empty beer bottles and a glowing computer screen before he noticed Meiko holding the door knob.

"No!" Meiko screamed and Kaito just had time to duck when Meiko slammed the door where his head had been just a few seconds ago. The door hit him on the back of the head hard and Kaito saw stars as his eyes began to water from the pain.

He consoled himself by reminding himself that he was just a few inches away from a broken neck, and if Meiko really had slammed the door on his head, he could have been killed.

"Meikoooooo…" Kaito howled like a whipped dog. He'd missed his chance by mere inches, and he had no clue how he was going to get Meiko out in the open again.

Gakupo in the meanwhile plugged himself in to charge and threw off various articles of winter clothing. Today had by far been the worst day of his whole life and he could tell that it was only going to get worse.

"That's right Gakupo." He scolded himself sarcastically as he tossed a winter boot indiscriminately into the closet. "Just keep thinking positive."

Gakupo collapsed on his bed and stared at the clock. "How is it, "he asked no one in particular "that I've only been awake four-and-a-half hours, but I've had the worst, most exhausting four and a half hours of my entire life?"

"I know how you feel." Luka was standing at his door.

"Oh, I didn't hear you come in." Gakupo sat up in bed and patted the sheet. Luka came and sat beside him.

"So you talk to yourself all the time?"

"No."

Luka smiled. "Well, you know what they say."

"What?" Gakupo asked.

"You aren't crazy if you talk to yourself; you're crazy when you answer yourself."

That struck Gakupo as genuinely funny. He laughed and wrapped his arms around Luka. "That was great! Really clever! Did you make that up yourself?"

Luka shook her head. "I saw it somewhere on the internet."

"Ah."

Gakupo stared at Luka. The day had really done a number on her. He smoothed her hair away from her face and noticed dark circles beneath her eyes where there weren't any before.

"We need some sleep." He said. "You look as though you've been through the wringer."

Luka grimaced. "This old girl's seen better days."

Gakupo hummed in agreement. He still thought she looked beautiful, though not as well rested and together as she was that morning. There was something in her when she was worn rugged that had a beauty all its own.

Gakupo couldn't put a name to what it was that he found beautiful. Like the eroded face on a mountain had something majestic in it, Luka had a strength that gave her the air of great inner beauty. Gakupo was fascinated.

He leaned in and kissed her gently. Then she got up and left the room for the hallway. Gakupo watched her leave and lay back upon his bed.

He turned off the lights and let the glow of the city cast his room in an eerie pallor. He hugged his pillow to his chest, and for the third time that day he did something he thought he would never do. He cried.

His pillow was right above where he felt emptiest. He was surrounded by people who knew of his troubles and sympathized with him, but he had never felt more alone.


	8. Chapter 8

A car horn blared somewhere in the city and Gakupo was stirred out of a restless dream. He blinked the sleep from his eyes and looked around his room, which was dimly illuminated in the morning sun.

Gakupo's eyes felt heavy and swollen, and he could have easily laid back down and fallen right back to sleep but he remembered he had an early morning appointment with Master, and he decided that he would rather wake up instead of being late.

After all, he couldn't afford to miss an appointment THIS important.

He rolled over and bumped into Luka, who stirred briefly and made a low moan and for an instant Gakupo's breath caught in his throat. But thankfully Luka sank right back into a deep sleep.

Gakupo waited silently, not even daring to move a single muscle until he saw her pupils darting around beneath her eyelids. Gakupo watched her, leaning uncomfortably and holding his breath until he saw the gentle ripple of movement that signaled the deepest sleep.

Rapid Eye Movement or REM was when a person dreamt and was the hardest stage of sleep to awaken somebody from. Gakupo had read that while skimming through a psych textbook a few months ago and for some reason he never really forgot about it. In this case it came in handy. He hardly ever woke Luka up.

Gakupo carefully slid from underneath his lilac sheets and climbed over Luka, exercising the utmost stealth that he could afford as a samurai.

He nimbly landed on the floor without a sound, then quietly dressed in his normal jinbaori and hakama. He tied his purple sash around his waist and gasped when it made a rustling noise that sounded extremely loud in the silent morning.

He looked to Luka's sleeping face and exhaled in relief when he saw her eyes still shut, and her face still peaceful. She was really, really beautiful he thought to himself for the hundredth time that week.

He ran a brush through his hair, then tied aside two locks of hair with light blue ribbons. Gakupo rifled through his papers and clothes to find his "x" shaped hair clip, then he tied all of the rest of his long purple hair back into a long ponytail.

"Hmmmm…." Gakupo checked off the items of his outfit from a mental list in his head "Hair, clip, sash, hakama, jinbaori…" Gakupo turned and in the corner of his room he found his boots tossed carelessly in a heap of dirty clothes with Picaro the kitten sleeping on top of them.

"Good." He looked around and nodded. "Am I missing anything?"

Suddenly Luka cooed behind him and Gakupo jumped in shock. But to his relief she only rolled over, still asleep.

Gakupo caught sight of the one part of his outfit he'd missed hanging off of his bedpost. He tip-toed over to where Luka slept and, very gently, kissed her on the forehead.

He slipped his earphones off from around the bedpost and thought to himself "I wish I could stay here all day and watch you sleep." He silently opened the door and moved into the hall, trying not to make the door creak as he shut it.

"I'll just have to hope that she's still asleep when I return." He slipped his headphones comfortably over his ears and wandered off to the kitchen to have a cup of coffee.

He caught sight of himself in the hallway mirror, and he couldn't help but stare. He was in every way, the epitome of the classical samurai. He didn't mean to sound vain, but as he allowed himself a calm smile he realized that he had been created as some kind of beautiful testament to the samurai heroes of the past, who were always described as beautiful men.

He was beautiful in many ways, but Gakupo didn't care much for his appearance. His face, his body, and even his outfits had been manufactured for him. He figured "Why bother if somebody else will decide for me anyway."

Gakupo let his calm smile fall and instead stuck his tongue out at his reflection. He was shocked at his childish actions, but he also felt a real smile stretch across his face.

He grinned on his way downstairs into the kitchen. He decided to make coffee for the whole family, instead of using the instant mix that could be made for one person alone. Gakupo also found that while the family was almost out of coffee, they had more than enough cereal to last for a few weeks.

"One, two, three…" Gakupo counted seven different cereal boxes in the pantry and three kinds of oatmeal. He knew that even these provisions wouldn't last long in the Vocaloid family house hold.

Gakupo found a box of whole wheat cereal and a carton of whole milk and he sat down at the kitchen counter to pour himself a breakfast.

On one end of the counter Gakupo noticed a manila folder. While he chewed on his cereal he scanned over the folder. The side facing up was unmarked, so Gakupo picked up the folder and flipped it over.

In violent surprise he spat his cereal across the room. The file was written on in a black magic marker, and it clearly was titled "Blackmail for Gakupo."

And if he wasn't mistaken, he knew the handwriting as the Kagamine's. It didn't matter which, both of their handwriting was the same.

He opened the folder and out slid several photos of Luka and him sleeping in his dark room together. Gakupo turned red, out of anger and embarrassment.

Over the past three days since he had been told he had a virus, Luka would sneak into his room sometimes at night and slip under the covers and just lay there at his side. He would sometimes hold her; sometimes pretend to be asleep until she was asleep too. He had been especially tender to her, and she in turn had been a pillar of support to him.

"WHY!?" Gakupo tossed his spoon across the kitchen where it landed with a clatter. "What the hell!" It was apparent that the Kagamine twins had snuck into his room at night and had taken pictures of the two of them while they slept. Gakupo had to admit, they were even sneakier than he was.

"Those two are damned ninja!" Gakupo swore and shoved the photos in his pocket. On the inside of the folder was a written list of the Kagamine's terms and Gakupo grudgingly read them to himself.

"You will show up in the kitchen at 7:35 pm exactly. Alone."

"Why such a specific time?" Gakupo wondered.

"You will be wearing formal attire. You're best."

"Again, why?"

"You will bathe, shave, wash your hair, brush your teeth, fix your hair, deodorize, put on cologne, do your dirty laundry and change your sheets. We're tired of your funny smell."

Gakupo gritted his teeth. "I'm going to kill them." It was true he had neglected his laundry, but seriously? What funny smell?

"Do as you're told or these photos will be put on the internet along with your private e-mail address, so you can have fun swimming through all of the new fan-mail."

Gakupo put down the folder and began to clean up the mess he had made with his cereal. He wiped up the spilt milk and bits of cereal and picked up the spoon and threw it in the sink.

All the while his eye was twitching with pure frustration. How DARE they. It wasn't bad enough he had virtually no privacy with his own body, what with the virus and all. But they had snuck into his ROOM and taken pictures of him and LUKA. Was nothing sacred? Was nowhere PRIVATE?

Gakupo picked up a fresh spoon and returned to his cereal, with much less vigor than he'd started with.

He finished his cereal and had just begun to rinse his bowl in the sink when he heard a slamming through the house that got louder as it approached him.

"Good Morning Master." Gakupo said as the Master tore into the kitchen like a twister, spinning and trying to keep her balance with her arms piled high with various electronics.

"Morning Gakupo, our appointment for this morning is canceled, see me at about two. Thanks, I knew you'd understand." And before Gakupo could protest she left the kitchen and made her way into the basement, dropping electronics along the way.

Gakupo sighed. "In the Vocaloid family, one often feels as though one is set adrift in a fast moving stream." He said aloud, and made a note to write it down for the cover of his new album that he would soon be working on. It was to be titled "Familiar affairs." Which could be interpreted as familiar, as in the same, or family.

Gakupo didn't know what else to dedicate himself to that morning. It was still early, only about 6:30. All of the Vocaloid who pulled all-nighters for their new songs wouldn't be awake for a few hours, some were probably just going to bed.

Gakupo yawned and decided that in bed was probably the best place for him at the moment. He started upstairs like a zombie, lumbering along, and peeling off clothes in the hallway and up the stairs. He took off his sash, his boot his hair clip and his head phones before he even opened the door to his room.

When he opened the door he tossed his stuff into the dirty clothes pile and peeled off his other boot. He quietly shut the door and climbed back over Luka to get into bed.

He just lay on top of the covers and listened to her breathing. Soon the weight of his eyes overcame him and his mind began to wander.

He started daydreaming, and soon his daydream melted into a normal dream and Gakupo fell asleep.

Luka woke up suddenly with a start. She had been dreaming about walking around the house picking up pieces of paper when she had tripped on something and was startled awake. Luka looked around, temporarily disoriented. Where in the world was she?

Then Luka remembered she had come into Gakupo's room and lay down on his bed late in the night. She looked at Gakupo's digital alarm clock and her breath caught in her throat. It was 9:30! She had to get out of his room before he woke up!

Luka tried to roll out of bed, but she found that sometime in the night Gakupo had wrapped his arm around her, and she couldn't move without waking him up.

"Crud, what now?" She thought turning to face Gakupo across the pillow.

He seemed to be sleeping soundly and Luka felt her heart flutter in her chest. He was so beautiful it was heart wrenching!

Yes, he SEEMED to be sleeping, but Luka looked down and noticed he was almost fully dressed, in his hakama and his jinbaori. Luka was sure he was wearing pajamas of some kind when he went to sleep last night.

"Gakupo are you awake?" Luka whispered.

At first Gakupo was still, and Luka thought he was truly asleep. But after a moment he smiled and playfully opened one of his eyes, winking at her.

"I am now."

"What happened to your appointment?" Luka asked as Gakupo moved closer to her, pulling her up against his body.

"Postponed till this afternoon." Gakupo rubbed his hands along the curves if Luka's body and relished in the familiar rush of electricity that was usually coupled with loving Luka. She was wearing her JBF nightgown again and Gakupo couldn't help but remember that night in the tent with her on the hill.

They had been so close, and then all of a sudden the dam had burst and they began to make passionate love, until Luka fell asleep…

Gakupo smiled. "My life is just full of punch lines like that." He thought as he leaned in and kissed Luka's nose.

Luka turned away and laughed, and Gakupo caught another kiss on her open mouth. Luka fell into the kiss that was slow and filled with emotion and she began to feel the tingling sensation build up in her chest.

Luka became dizzy. "Not this early in the morning!" She told herself as she and Gakupo worked the kiss into a rhythm "Don't lose control here!"

But Luka discovered she really didn't care after a little while of kissing. She rolled on top of Gakupo and began to peel of his jinbaori.

Gakupo grinned "Presumptuous, are we?" But he let his outer layer get peeled off and he began undoing buttons on Luka's nightgown. "It's late in the morning, what if we're caught?"

Luka tore off Gakupo's shirt, slightly aggravated. She'd been thinking the same thing and scolding herself for ignoring her own advice of not losing control.

She murmured through gritted teeth "Let them see. I don't give a-" But Gakupo pounced on her unprotected mouth and started another long kiss.

He took Luka in his strong arms and flipped her over. She flopped into the soft pillows and Gakupo finished unbuttoning her nightgown. Luka's fingers searched down Gakupo's waist line until she found his hakama and she began to pull it down.

Gakupo made a sound almost like a laugh "Ha!" and he fell into Luka.

Luka was about to begin a whisper of sweet nothings into Gakupo's ear; after all, why not? She was so full of emotion she could have said anything and made I seem good, but an ear splitting squeal from down stairs took her attention away from words.

Gakupo turned and faced the sound. It had risen up from downstairs and had filled Gakupo with unease, but he turned back to Luka and steadfastly decided to ignore the squeal. In the Vocaloid family house, it could have been anything.

But the squeal was accompanied with a rally of crashes and the sounds of furniture knocking over, and Gakupo heard voices rising from down stairs.

"Oh my god!"

"What the hell is it?"

"Be careful!"

"- killer!"

Gakupo became panicked and he pulled his hakama back up. "Something's wrong down there, I have to go check it out!" and he stormed out of the room wearing only his hakama leaving Luka alone in the crumpled bed sheets.

Luka sighed and began to re-button her nightshirt. She was also worried about the noises downstairs, but she was also really disappointed. She hadn't been able to love Gakupo like that since before the whole virus fiasco, and now that she had the chance…

Luka's eyes began to fill with tears, but a heavy crash from down stairs snapped her back into focus.

She knew what Gakupo was thinking. The mysterious black van that had been trying to abduct Vocaloids had parked outside the house twice in the past three days.

Vocaloids inside had spent hours watching it, waiting for someone or something to come out. But nothing ever came out of the black van, and no one was brave enough to go outside and confront the people inside.

Gakupo had once wondered aloud if they would ever try to come into the house and Gumi had patted him on the shoulder smiling. "No way would they try to sneak in here! There are still more of us than there are of them, they would get beaten down."

Gumi had fist pumped the air. "Down, down to china town!" Gakupo had chuckled and patted her on the head, but the threat had lingered. Luka could see it in his eyes. They had taken away his security to go out and wander the streets of the small town, and they had taken away the security he had over his own body. How much longer before they break the only safe thing he has left?

Luka finished hastily buttoning her nightgown and quickly raced downstairs.

When she reached the bottom step she found Gakupo staring in awe at something in the kitchen.

"Hey, Gakupo. What was that crash?"

Gakupo's whole demeanor changed when he saw Luka out of the corner of his eye. His whole body was rigid from shock, but when Luka came downstairs the stiffness melted away and was replaced by the fluid motion he had been trained to use in combat as a samurai.

He leapt at her and used his arms as blockades. "Move, Move! Go upstairs right now! NOW!" Luka was confused and scared, she had never heard Gakupo speak roughly to her, but she had never seen him so full of fear.

She was so shocked that she numbly began to scurry up stairs. She turned to look back at Gakupo, and screamed.

The image from her more recent nightmares moved into the hallway out of the kitchen and for a single splitting second Luka thought she had sunk back into a dream.

But no, it was real. Really truly real. Luka's mouth gaped open in shock.

Michael Myers, the psycho killer from the horror movies was really truly in their hallway. Clad in a mechanic's uniform and even his expressionless white mask.

Gakupo turned around; too late. The enormous man was easily a head taller than Gakupo and he wrapped his arms around the Samurai in a crushing bear hug.

Luka knew from the movie that he was extremely strong, but since he didn't have a knife, maybe Luka could still save Gakupo.

Gakupo grunted and kicked Myers's thick burly body, but the man either didn't feel the blows, or didn't care.

Luka grabbed a picture that was hanging off the wall and tore it off, wrenching the hook from the wall. She took a running start and shouted "Gakupo!" like a war cry and with all of her might smashed the picture into Myers's head.

But Myers also ignored this and he walked back into the kitchen with the samurai still in his arms. Gakupo had found a way to free his arms and had started beating Myer's around the head.

He scored some massive blows right to Myer's face and tore the white mask off with the force of his punches, but instead of a human face Michael Myers had only silver wiring and glowing red eyes.

Gakupo gasped. Was he still sleeping, was this just a horrific nightmare?

In the kitchen, the Kagamine twins and Neru Akita cowered in a corner and Luka followed Michael and Gakupo kicking at the murderer's impossibly thick legs. Luka knew from the movie that the chances of success were low, but the first characters to be killed off were the ones who thought they didn't have a chance.

Master wandered up from the basement suddenly, mid-yawn when she saw the crazy scene in the kitchen and she jumped in surprise.

"No, Michael! Put him down!" She said firmly, like a mother to a misbehaving child.

The large man didn't comply right away and instead seemed to be contemplating releasing Gakupo.

But Master held firm "Put him DOWN."

Michael Myers dropped Gakupo suddenly and he scurried over to where the twins and Neru were huddled in a corner.

"Now Mikey, we talked about this. They're family. You can't scare family." Luka scurried over to Gakupo and they both watched in amazement as the giant man hung his head.

Master tenderly put the White mask back over his head and he stood up almost proudly, towering over the scientist.

"Please don't tell me…?" Gakupo began, but words failed him.

Master understood. "Hm, yeah. I've been working on him since Len said something about it a few days ago."

Gakupo turned to Len, whom he thought was cowering, was actually unconscious in Rin's arms.

"I've already gotten an interested buyer at a Halloween haunted house in Florida. This really cool haunted house made out of an old castle… and well, the owner doesn't want him till August, so we have one new member in the Vocaloid family for a while."

"Halloween androids…" Gakupo was reminder of what he had said this morning, about life in the Vocaloid family being like setting adrift in a stream. He suddenly felt exhausted.

Master smiled a wide mischievous grin. "I also want you to tell all of the other Vocaloids to look out at the front street through their windows. Could you guys run through the house and do that for me? Oh, but tell them not to go outside."

"Why?" Neru interjected.

Master laughed and patted Michael Myers's belly. "My sweet children..." she said walking importantly to the window. Gakupo suddenly thought of her as an evil scientist, smiling evilly in a white lab coat, acting mysteriously.

"There are three ways of doing things in this world." Master counted them off her fingers.

"The easy way. The hard way…" she bounced slightly with excitement as she looked out onto the streets. "…and the fun way!"

"This is going to be great!" She said, then she shooed them off into the house and took Michael aside.

Gakupo curiously looked out the window and felt his stomach drop. The same black van was parked right on the curb right outside the house.

Gakupo's mouth was dry and he suddenly began to panic, "What was Master going to do?"

He suddenly felt icy cold fingers on his bare back and his heart leapt into his throat. But it was only Luka, come to the window to take a look.

Luka's face blanched and she suddenly started to breath heavier. She ran her fingers along his bare arm and looked out at the van.

Then suddenly she fled upstairs and he could hear her going into bedrooms and telling Vocaloids to look out their windows to the front of the house or come into the living room and see.

Gakupo for his part trudged up stairs to Kaito's room where Kaito was playing the chords to his new song on the piccolo.

"Hey, come on out to the living room." Gakupo said numbly. His mouth was dry and he tried wetting his lips with his tongue.

Kaito stopped the shrill whistling and looked at him curiously. "Why?"

"That black van is parked outside and Master said she's going to get rid of it 'the fun way'."

Kaito looked like he was going to be sick. "She's not going to blow it up, is she?"

Gakupo gave an awkward grimace. "I think she actually has something worse up her sleeve."

Kaito groaned. "Great…"

Gakupo also knocked on Meiko's door and said briefly "Hey, look out to the front lawn and watch that black van, Master is going to get rid of it somehow and she said to watch."

Meiko said nothing but there was a shuffling inside her room and the sound of food wrappers rustling, so Gakupo figured she might have moved to her window, which over looked the lawn.

Gakupo stopped by the room which had recently been converted into Kiyoteru's study/bedroom and found the teacher hunched over a desk grading papers.

Gakupo knocked thrice and Kiyoteru grumbled "Hiyama-sensei is not available at the moment; please leave a message after the tone. Beeeeeeep-!"

Gakupo knew this was the system he had set up for Kaai Yuki. He would pretend to be a phone recording, and the innocent little girl would always fall for it. She would leave a message and walk away, and he would usually get back to her later. Gakupo thought it was a little bit twisted how he manipulated her, but it kept Hiyama-sensei up- to-date on his grading.

Gakupo said: "Hello, Kiyoteru-san, It's me. Gakupo. When you get this message take a break from working and come out to the living room. Master's orders. The black van is parked outside and she said she's going to get rid of it 'the fun way'. Lord knows with her it should only take a few seconds."

Kiyoteru twitched and straightened out his back. "Okay, I could use a break."

Gakupo walked back down the hallway and stopped by his room to pick up a black long-sleeved shirt from the dirty clothes pile.

He smell-checked it and found that it barely had a scent, so he put it on and suddenly remembered the Kagamine's conditions for the blackmail. He checked the clock. It was about 10. He still had plenty of time to do laundry and shower.

Gakupo headed downstairs to the living room window which had accumulated several more Vocaloids since he had left.

A whole crowd of Vocaloids with candy-colored hair were craning their necks to see out the large window. Gakupo found a spot next to Luka and waited patiently.

Master came out behind all of them. "Is everybody ready?"

Kaito asked "What are you going to DO to them?"

Master smiled evilly. "You'll see… Mwa hahahaha!"

Len had been shaken back to consciousness by his sister and sat shivering by the window sill. He had screamed out loud when he saw Michael Myers and feinted, and he had also resolved never to watch another Halloween movie so long as he lived.

Gakupo counted everyone at the window. "Gumi, Miku, Neru, Teto, Ted, Kiyoteru, Rin, Len, Kaito, Sweet Ann, and Luka." Almost everyone in the house had come down to the window, even the Vocaloids who could have seen the scene from their rooms.

Gakupo looked back to the van. It was sitting still, and he couldn't see any movement through the darkened windows. Just sitting there. Menacingly.

Suddenly Gakupo saw a dark shape moving from one side of the house. It was Michael Myers, armed with a foot-long, five inch, de-boning knife. He shuffled slowly over to one of the back windows of the car and tapped on the darkened glass with the horrifically long knife.

Len jumped backwards and was caught by a wall of other Vocaloids who picked him back up and placed him back at the window.

All of a sudden the car began to rock. Gakupo figured that whoever was inside had scurried away from the window in total panic, and he didn't blame them.

The Vocaloids cheered. But the fun wasn't over yet. The van door slid open and one of the people in black masks jumped out. The door immediately slid shut behind him. Everyone was dead silent as they caught a glimpse at one of the members of the gang that was terrorizing their family.

The black-masked person confidently strolled up to Michael, who stood with his knife raised.

"I know you're just a Vocaloid trying to scare us away," Gakupo could hear a girl speak through the glass.

"So, who are you? Kaito? Gakupo?" Gakupo could see the lips smile beneath the black robber's mask. "Not that it matters," She said confidently.

"COME ON OUT YOU GUYS, HELP ME GRAB HIM!" The girl in the mask jumped up and tore the mask off of Michael's face to reveal the silver wiring that looked like the terminator, and glowing red eyes, and gnashing fanged teeth that sputtered foam on the girl's mask.

The girl gave a wrenching gasp and feinted on the ground. Michael looked at her then slowly and scarily looked at the van.

He took a few steps towards the van and whoever was driving floored the gas and the van sped away into the city, leaving its courageous member still knocked out on the ground.

All of the Vocaloids at the window cheered and laughed and high-fived each other and Gakupo hugged Luka.

"We did it!" Rin shouted and Ted fist pumped repeatedly and Miku was crying happy tears and Master stood proudly overlooking the exalted scene.

It was like New Year's, everybody was cheering and laughing and hugging. The Master wished that she could lose herself in the happiness of the moment too, for the prank had been entirely satisfying.

But the Master already had theories on who was behind the mysterious gang. She prayed that she was wrong, but all of the evidence pointed to one person being behind the black van's activities. And if that was true, then she figured that they would be back, Myers or no Myers.

But for now she had an appointment. Gakupo was due in her lab in about three hours for a check-up, and she had to bring Michael Myers in before he scared the neighbors.

But most importantly… She had her suspicions about the mysterious masked group. And luckily enough she had finally found someone to confirm these suspicions.

"Master, what's wrong?" Rin asked as she hugged Master around the middle. Master had been so deep in thought she hadn't even noticed she was being hugged.

Master sighed. "I'm not through playing the evil scientist yet today, I'm going to go and finish scaring the bajeebers out of that girl. I'll probably set her straight forever, but she might also need a therapist.

Rin smiled. "Huh?"

Master left the little party and wandered outside. She pulled the mask off the passed out girl and found her to be a brunette of about thirteen.

"Michael, would you be a dear and pick this girl up for me? I can't carry her."

The giant android hoisted the girl up with no visible effort and the Master led them through the house into the basement.


	9. Chapter 9

Gakupo and Luka shared a brief kiss as they waited for Master to knock on the one-way glass. They were in a room behind the basement that had one solid wall of one-way glass, so that they could clearly see into the dim basement, but no one in the basement could see them.

After the Master had caught one of the members of the horrible gang of black-masked people who were stalking the Vocaloid Family, she had taken her; unconscious, to the dark, abysmal basement for interrogation…

…Then she had raced back upstairs asking for someone to help her mediate between "Torture" and "Interrogation".

Gakupo had volunteered, not only because he really wasn't sure whether or not their Master would really resort to torture; but also because he wanted to hear more about why the gang was targeting Vocaloids and what there scheme was.

Master had made their job clear; when she went too far in her interrogation they were to tap on the glass.

"I don't want anyone anywhere near this girl, understand?" Master had said as Gakupo had started his own decent into the black basement. "She might be young, but she's a violent criminal with obsessive compulsions."

Gakupo had nodded solemnly, but now as he looked into the darkness where the little girl was still unconscious in a beam of bright spotlight he wondered, "Were these really the people who attacked me earlier? Were they all this young?"

He felt another blast of shame. He'd been in a struggle with these gang members. And lost. If they were all pre-adolescent girls, then what did that mean for him?

Luka snuck another kiss on the side of his mouth while his mind was occupied. He turned surprised and found himself encroached with the way the light shimmered off of her glassy blue eyes. Her eyes seemed to glow in the dark.

He smiled calmly and returned the kiss.

With interest.

Gakupo lead a trail of kisses across her mouth and Luka wrapped her arms around his neck. Her fingers cautiously felt along the down hair line and she traced a triangle of the soft hair down his neck.

To Gakupo's great, GREAT dismay, Rin began to giggle. It was a manic, crazy sound that Gakupo had become accustomed to hearing from the other Vocaloid girls. He turned and found that four or five other Vocaloids had slipped in silently while Gakupo and Luka had been getting into their mood.

Gakupo squinted in the darkness and he could just barely make out Rin, Kaito, Miku and Teto; all lining up across the one way glass, eager to see one of their tormentors face-to-face.

"Is that her?" Miku asked her face pinched and tight. "She looks so… normal!"

Gakupo nodded in agreement. The girl wasn't particularly notable; she had average chestnut brown hair cut an average length with average features. She wasn't particularly pretty, but she was a far cry from ugly. She was outstandingly normal.

Kaito chimed into Gakupo's thoughts, "She's UNUSUALLY normal!"

Rin murmured "I once watched a documentary on psychopaths which said 'the most average person can sometimes be holding a deadly secret'. Generally serial murderers are pointed out by their neighbors as being nice men and women with nothing out of the ordinary about them."

The room behind the glass became uncomfortably silent. Rin grimaced, she didn't mean to say something that creepy.

"Well, that's just what it said, probably not true."

But the tension in the room remained. Suddenly the door slammed and everyone jumped. Gakupo instinctively reached for his sword, which wasn't at his side when Rin shrieked.

"Len, you super jerk! You scared the living day lights out of me!"

Len stood sheepishly at the other end of the room, his hand still outstretched to catch the door, which had swung too quickly and slammed.

Gakupo found his heart racing, despite himself. He chastised himself silently for being scared, but they really were in a strange position.

Gakupo had run about a dozen worst-case scenarios in his mind, and he wondered if the black van would come back and all of the people inside would lay siege to the house, or if they would call the police and the Master would be arrested for kidnapping. They were really in a compromised position, and technically they were all accomplices to the crime.

Gakupo followed Len with his eyes and watched him rejoin at his sister's side. The two of them fit together like pieces of a puzzle.

Gakupo felt the urge to confront them about this morning's blackmail, but just as he opened his mouth, a knocking came on the glass, and everyone silenced themselves.

A lump formed in Gakupo's throat as he saw the Master calmly pass in front of the glass wearing a doctor's operating mask. He wondered briefly if she was serious about wandering into the realm of torture with her interrogation.

Everyone held their breath as they watched the Michael Myers android stand next to the operating table, just hidden from the bright spotlight by the shadows.

Master held in her hands two belts that she had taken from Kaito's closet and drilled some extra holes into. She used two rags to act as a cushion for the girl's wrists, then tightly strapped the belts around each arm, and secured them to the operating table.

The girl began to faintly stir from her dream and Master gave Michael a little wave. The monster android leaned into the light and its starch white face started to glow.

She suddenly woke up all the way and screamed while thrashing on the table. The girl seemed disoriented, but lucid enough to know she was in danger.

"Nonononono! Please, It wasn't me, I swear!" she mumbled tugging uselessly against the straps

"You swear?" Master said darkly. Gakupo decided it was time to knock on the glass and tell her she was being too scary. Rin had gasped and grabbed Gakupo's hand for support, and Gakupo was a little bit guilty for having to peel his hand from her grasp.

He tapped three times, but Master either didn't hear him, or was ignoring him.

"It wasn't you… what?" she said calmly, but with severity that startled Gakupo.

"I wasn't the one who… It wasn't me!" The poor girl started to cry. She looked from the demented doctor, to the psycho murderer as if she didn't know who to be more afraid of.

"Calm down honey." The Master said sweetly. "I know."

"You know?" The girl looked up with a ray of hope glistening in her eyes.

"I know that you know." The Master held an intimidatingly long needle into the spotlight. "And that's what I want to know, y'know?"

Gakupo gritted his teeth as the poor girl on the table worked herself into a frenzy. "She's going to give her a heart attack!" He mumbled as he repeatedly knocked against the glass.

"Gakupo, you're going to drill a hole in the glass." Luka said as she caressed his other hand. "She's ignoring you for a reason, and you're just scaring the child."

Gakupo let his hand fall to his side and it was immediately seized up by Rin.

The girl stopped struggling and stared at the needle. The Master seeing an opportunity brought it closer to her forearm.

The color drained from her face as she gave one last futile tug against her bonds.

"Now that we've been aquatinted, let's start with some rules. I'm going to ask a question and you're going to answer it." Master dropped the needle on the table beside the girl. "Fail to do so in a satisfactory manner and… well, you know."

The girl nodded, but she looked as though she would pass out again.

"First, what's your name?" Master sat down in a chair that was hidden just beyond the spotlight, and the shadows cast on her face made her seem more intimidating.

"K-kuh…" The girl was struggling for words, she swallowed hard and finally managed to say "Kyoko."

"That's a pretty name. Where were you born?"

"K-Kyoto."

"Very fitting. Where do you live now?"

"Hinabi road. 4337 Hinabi road."

"Nice, I was here when they built that. It's a nice little neighborhood." Master spoke as if she was Kyoko's friend. Gakupo knew she was doing some kind of 'Good-cop, Bad-cop' thing she had learned on television, he just wondered how when the bad-cop would show up next.

"Where are your parents tonight?" Master asked.

"At home." Kyoko said steadfastly.

"What do they think you're doing?"

"They think I'm at a study group with friends."

"That's what you told them?" Master pressed leaning into the spotlight.

"Thant's what I said!" Kyoko nodded, beginning to sweat under the hot light.

"So they have no idea what you're actually doing at night?"

To this Kyoko had no response, she only turned her head away from the Master, as if to hide her shame.

"Who were those people you were with?" Master suddenly started asking the questions she really had wanted answers to and Gakupo leaned in until his nose was almost touching the glass. He was having trouble hearing since the Master's voice had dropped.

"They… Well some of them were friends I met online, others I never knew until… well. It's a long story."

Master picked up the needle and the girl suddenly turned pale as the blood drained from her face. "Don't worry." Master said flicking the syringe. "I've got time."

"I-uh…I-uh…" Kyoko was petrified and unable to speak over her raw fear.

Master leaned back into the darkness. "Like I said, I've got time. Take a deep breath."

Kyoko gaped like a fish out of water. She didn't seem to be breathing so much as trying to breath. But after a few seconds of gaping she was ready to speak.

"I use to belong to a Vocaloid chat group…right?" To this Master shrugged her shoulders. "Well I got this IM that redirected me to this other site where there were a bunch of people. On the other sites, I didn't have a whole lot of friends who shared my… interests.

After a little while on that site we got to talking about how we all ended up together, because we each hit it off right away. I made more good friends in those ten minutes than I have in ten years! Turns out we all got the same IM from the same guy.

Later we all got another IM that told us to go to this place outside of town, and it was awesome! I met all of my online friends offline and it was great!"

Master began to lazily tap the needle against the side of her cheek. Clearly she was bored.

"But, the guy who was sending us IMs, we couldn't find him amongst ourselves. Then he came out and he told us he could make our wish come true."

Master shot up from her seat and the chair clattered to the floor. Kyoko shrunk away, but Master had dropped the needle and instead grabbed the collar of her shirt.

"Tell me! What did he want?" She looked crazy as she shook Kyoko like a doll.

"He wanted a Vocaloid, he told us where to find them and how to get them!" Kyoko started to cry as Master slammed her down on the table again.

"What was you're wish?" She asked staring directly into Kyoko's eyes fiercely.

"I wished that Kaito would love me, like he did Meiko in that PV!" Kyoko blubbered as she wiped away tears with her shoulder. "I knew it was dumb, but I thought... if no one else, maybe he could—"

Master cut her off, "What did the man look like?"

"White beard, kind of tall… um…" Kyoko closed her eyes and thought desperately. "Oh! And a scar across his right cheek…"

Master fell into the shadows and collapsed onto her hands and knees. In all of her very worst dreams and nightmares, she had never imagined such complete betrayal.

"Wait! Wait!" Kyoko called into the shadows where Master had disappeared. "Please don't leave me!" She shot a frightened look at white-faced Michael Myers and cried even harder.

Master stood up and brushed herself off. She was about to start some crying of her own.

She re-entered the spotlight and calmly unbuckled Kyoko. Kyoko sat up and rubbed her wrists. The rags had made it so that even though she should have been noticeable chaffed by the tight belts, her wrists were unmarked.

Master grabbed her arm and Kyoko was forced to slide off the table. Master pulled off her operating mask that was just used to scare the girl and threw it on the floor.

"Come on." Master said grudgingly. "I'll drive you home, we need to talk."

Kyoko looked as though she would rather do ANYTHING but follow the Master, but she allowed herself to be pulled up the stairs of the Vocaloid family basement.

Gakupo stood, stunned behind the glass. "Unbelievable." He whispered as he listened for the front door to shut.

"So these so-called attackers were just rabid fan girls?" Len said sarcastically "Big-whoop, we deal with those every day."

Teto flicked him on the back of the head, "Don't you listen. They're not just a bunch of fan girls, they're organized." She shook her finger as she started on a rambling tangent.

"Probably by some kind of criminal master mind who wants the secret to creating Vocaloids so that he can utilize our technology and make a robot army to TAKE OVER THE WOOOORLD!"

"Rin still held Gakupo's hand. "I can't believe that Master could be so horrifically mean.

I mean, did you see that poor girl? She looked like she was about to have a heart attack!"

"I wonder what the Master wanted to talk to her about?" Luka said.

"I'm not sure how I feel having fans like that." Kaito said as he opened the door out of the one-way room and into the basement.

"You should be very, very worried." Miku said glumly as she followed Kaito out and up the stairs.

"Yeah, well, at least they're ALL not like that!" Kaito said while skipping up stairs two at a time.

Gakupo mumbled mainly to himself "I wonder how many there ARE like that?"

Luka locked elbows with him as they marched upstairs. "More than you care to know, probably."

Meiko watched the Master pull out of the drive way with the girl in the back seat of the station wagon. She had wondered what had been said and done down in the basement, but she knew Kaito would have been there, so she wasn't going to be.

No way.

She sat hugging her knees on her bed staring at the computer screen. The computer had been running for a few days straight now.

It was just that, she was so completely indecisive. She could see it with her own eyes, but she couldn't believe it completely.

She stared at the picture that was his icon for this particular chat site. It was Kaito while he was onstage a few concerts ago. A fan had taken this picture and sent it to him, and he loved it so much he used it as his icon for about a dozen different web sites.

Yes, it was definitely Kaito's.

She stared at his username for this site. Kaitokid1227. It was some date in December, he said it was the day he realized how beautiful she was.

Cute, but not entirely truthful. Right?

She stared and stared at just his icon and his username. Strong, powerful and passionate on stage. Sweet, loving and caring off stage. He would even put up with her while drunk.

When she sobered up she always had the nagging feeling of guilt coupled with her powerful hangover. She knew she could be a jerk when she drank, but Kaito had always been there with a smile and aspirin.

Kaito would smile sadly. "It's alright; I know how you are when you drink. Take a shower, you'll feel better. And some cold water will take the edge off of that hangover."

He was always so nice. Meiko swore. What had she done now? What had made him change so. Damn. Much?

He had been waiting outside of her door for about a week now trying to apologize. She was half-tempted to let him. He seemed so sincere- so sorry!

But then she would look back to the hateful words on the monitor and she would fill herself with pure hot rage.

"How DARE he!" She would think. "I'm going to kill him!"

But he was so nice, and so sad, he seemed so sincerely sorry. Meiko would think back to all of the good times when Kaito had been there for her, and she would want to forgive him in her heart.

Then she would look back to that hateful-hateful monitor! And she would feel anger tearing at her insides.

"Don't say anything you'll regret." She reminded herself for the umpteenth time, but she couldn't take much more of this. Her emergency food supplies were running out and she was bored and cramped in her room filled with garbage.

To forgive, or not to forgive. That was the question… whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer, or fight against a sea of troubles?" Meiko was rewriting Hamlet for her own purposes, but she soon became bored with that and she slouched over in her bed.

"Should I ignore this insult, should I beat him up? Should I break up with him, or forgive him entirely?" Meiko had been running through scenarios for several days now. Caught in between what she wanted to do and what she should do she had hidden from every one, determined to make some kind of decision on her own.

She had drowned out Kaito's voice and everyone else's with music. She had been determined to come to some kind of conclusion on her own.

Unfortunately she hadn't been able to break her stalemate. Unable to decide what to do, she had done nothing.

And she hated herself for it.

Meiko banged her head against the wall. "Why. Am. I. Such. A. Dummy?" Meiko couldn't take the dissonance in her own mind. For once she wasn't telling herself what to do.

"Break up with him. Don't leave him hanging!"

"No, no! Make up with him. He LOVES you Meiko!"

Meiko held her head in her hands. "Makeupbreakupmakeupbreakup." She didn't know what to do! It was a little bit over whelming.

Suddenly her door swung open. Meiko gaped in amazement as the little kitten Picaro, clutching the door knob with its tiny paws entered the room.

"…..the hell did you get in here? The door was locked!" The kitten stared at her with its glassy blue eyes.

Meiko picked it up and Picaro gave a tiny indignant meow.

"Since when do we have a cat anyway?" Meiko had never met Picaro, and she scrutinized him carefully.

Picaro stared at her with his big, blue eyes and Meiko thought of Kaito. She didn't want to admit this to anyone, not even herself; but she really missed him. She missed his eyes, his warm hands; she missed his shoulder to lean on and his smooth voice.

But most of all she missed having a partner.

As members of Vocaloid 01, or the senior Vocaloid members, they had been marketed as partners. Meiko didn't care; until that partnership was gone.

It didn't matter that their original Vocaloid programming was marketed as partners, because now that they were personified as androids nothing that happened to their original marketing mattered. And besides, she had out sold Kaito, then Kaito had out sold her. They were never REALLY partners.

Were they?

Meiko held Picaro close to her chest and the kitten allowed himself to be hugged. Meiko was grateful. It was nice to have something warm and alive near her again.

But suddenly the kitten squirmed out of her hands and bounded out of the room. Meiko watched it leap towards the door with disappointment. The cat was nice and warm.

Meiko gasped in horror. Her eyes searched up and down, but she still couldn't believe what she saw.

"Oh, no." She thought. Suddenly she was about to be forced to make a decision, because Kaito stood in the open door way.

"Damn cat." She thought as she searched for the right words to tell Kaito.

Kaito watched her sadly. He knew that he would need to say, or do something to help her change her opinion, but what?

"The door was open, so I came in." He said shutting the door with a sigh.

"I know." Meiko said frostily.

"Of course she does, you idiot." Kaito scolded himself silently.

"Are you here to apologize?" Meiko asked, while lightning flashed in her eyes.

"No."

Meiko was confused. Apologizing was ALL he'd been trying to do for the past few days, could it be that he'd finally decided that she wasn't worth the effort? That all of his hateful words were true?

Was this the end?

"I can't apologize to you. I'm still not sure what I've done that's made you so mad." Kaito took in a deep, calming breath. "It would be disrespectful to you if I didn't mean what I said."

"Well, isn't that chivalrous?" Meiko's voice was dripping with sarcasm. She knew she was just being cruel, but she couldn't help it. She'd looked at the monitor again and all of those hateful words cut through her like a knife.

Kaito shuffled through the mountains of trash on the floor and sat down on Meiko's bed, but as he did she shot up.

"So, you mean everything you say?"

Kaito looked at her sadly. He seemed so drained, so tired. Meiko felt as though she was sucking the life right out of him.

"Meiko, is this about the lie? About tricking you into coming home? I'm sorry."

"No, no. This isn't about THAT!" Meiko was beginning to see that he honestly didn't understand, but at the moment her hate and anger won control of her.

She grabbed the computer monitor and turned it towards him, unleashing mountains of trash and wires that had been piled up on her desk.

"Look at it!" she shouted. She knew that the message was shocking. It had nearly killed her from horror at four-o-clock in the morning. But since then she had burned it into her mind, every derogatory adjective, every hateful slew. Every cursed line.

"Are you telling me you don't remember THAT? What you'd rather do than spend on more evening with Alcoholic, unattractive me?" Meiko huffed and puffed in triumph. Kaito's face was a mixture of horror and understanding.

Meiko knew that he knew.

"That's not my username." Kaito looked up at her in mingled shock and numb horror.

"What?"

"That's not me, my username is Kaitokid1221. One-two-two-ONE!"

Meiko stared at him as the feeling of dread began to creep into her stomach. She tried to say something twice and failed.

"Here, I'll prove it for you." Kaito jumped on the computer and quickly typed in the RIGHT user name and password. Once he was logged on he found the message and typed in "Hey, go muck up somebody else's chat site you imposter TROLL!"

Immediately there was a response. "NO U!"

It really was just some troll. Meiko felt her blood run cold. She should have KNOWN. She should have been wiser, smarter. She was a Vocaloid senior, but she fell for some stupid troll instead of listening to Kaito.

"Oh my God." She said with her head in her hands. "Oh my God."

"One-two-two-one," Kaito said turning and pulling her hands away from her face. December twenty-first. You came downstairs with snow in your hair to tell everyone that it was snowing outside. I remember everything from that morning."

Kaito knelt down on one knee. "They say that when you meet the love of your life, time stands still." Meiko started to cry as Kaito pulled a small black box from his pocket.

"I'll never forget. It's as though that moment is forever frozen in my mind. The way you're cheeks were rosy from the cold, and how red your lips were… How the crystals in your hair glimmered like starlight, and your eyes twinkled."

Kaito caught himself in a monologue and he laughed briefly.

"But if there's anything I've learned in the past week, it's that every day I only learn to love you more!"

Kaito opened the box. Inside was a dark blue stone, wrapped in the folds of a lotus flower made of gilded silver.

"If I thought you were beautiful before, I can't possible describe how beautiful you are to me now."

Meiko shook her head and fell on her knees with Kaito. "No, I've been so cruel. I can't…" she wiped the tears away with one hand and the water ran down her wrist onto the floor.

Kaito gently held her chin and she looked up into his dark blue eyes. She felt the guilt melt away and she was just happy to see into his soul again.

Kaito looked into her warm brown eyes and it was all he could do to keep from laughing. He was so happy! Warm, golden, good happiness welled up inside his chest and he felt as though he might burst with good feelings.

"Meiko…" he said gently. "…this isn't a diamond. I'm not going to tell you that I want you by my side forever."

Meiko looked at him confused and Kaito couldn't help it. He kissed her, long and passionately. It felt so good to be back in Meiko's arms where he belonged.

"This isn't a diamond. I'm telling you that no matter what I'll always be by your side.

If you want me, I'll be with you forever and a day, if you don't then I'll always be nearby." Kaito paused as his thoughts began to get off track.

"I love you. And I couldn't imagine one more day without having you close. If you're still uncomfortable with me, then so be it. But I'll never ever stop feeling this way about you."

Kaito kissed her briefly. "I love you." He said softly.

Meiko kissed Kaito, then she tore herself away for a moment. Her thoughts were rushing around and she needed to get a grip.

"This isn't a diamond." She said holding the box in Kaito's hand.

"Nope."

So you aren't proposing?"

"Not unless you're ready." Kaito started to smile. He knew where this was heading.

Meiko calmly closed the box. "Take that back to the store." She said smiling and leaning in for another sweet kiss. "And bring me a diamond."

Kaito laughed and pulled her on top of him. They rolled around in the wrappers and trash kissing and laughing.

It was good to be home.


	10. Chapter 10

Gakupo tossed laundry into his hamper until he had completely destroyed Laundry Mountain. He had only one hour until he was due for a checkup from the Master, and he still needed to meet the terms that the Kagamines had set for his blackmail.

He tore off his bed sheets and packed them into a ball and tossed them into the hamper. He was still thinking about Kyoko and the gang of fans.

He picked up his heavy basket and sighed. "It's hard being famous."

Gakupo took his laundry downstairs to the laundry room in the back of the house. He threw in some special color bleach, some detergent and a splash of stain remover before pouring all of his clothes into the wash.

"Um, I could be wrong, but don't you need to separate the lights form the darks first?" Gakupo turned around and found Luka smiling and chuckling at the mess he was making of the laundry room.

"Usually you'd be right, but since I basically wear the same color. It doesn't matter."

Luka grinned. "All right, you make a good point."

"What are you doing back here?" Gakupo asked as he prepared to close the washing machine. Luka strode alongside him and calmly tossed a few pairs of her underwear in with his wash.

"Same as you. Laundry." She said confidently.

Gakupo wondered if he was blushing as he watched Luka walk out of the room, her soft hair swishing around her waist.

Suddenly Master bolted past Luka and started to yell at Gakupo. "We're late! We're late! Come on we have to get started right NOW!"

Gakupo tried to explain that he needed time, but Master was already at the basement door when he turned around. She yelled at him from the door "Hurry up and come down" and Gakupo had no choice but to follow her to the basement. Again.

On his way to the basement He saw one of the Kagamines coming his way. He held out a hand and grabbed it by the arm before Identifying it as Len.

"Ow, Hey, what do you think you're doing?" Len pulled away from Gakupo.

"Look, I'm doing my Laundry like you said, but Master has me doing a checkup; can you switch it from the washing machine to the dryer when the washing is done?" Gakupo asked.

"No way, it's your chore!" Len sassed.

Gakupo sighed. "I'll pay you."

Len squinted his eyes. "How much?"

"Banana bread."

"Deal!" Len shook Gakupo's hand and ran off to meet Rin.

Gakupo wandered down the basement stairs again and again he felt as though he were wandering into hades.

Master waited at her computer desk typing at something when he arrived.

Master pulled up a comfortable chair for Gakupo and urged him to sit down. Gakupo noticed that it was the same soft, plush chair as last time and he groaned inward.

He cautiously plugged in the cords to each of his ports while holding his breath. Last 'checkup' he had been diagnosed with the virus after suffering EXTREME pain in his legs.

To say the least, Gakupo was not looking forward to this checkup.

His bio-information popped up on the enormous monitor and Gakupo looked over the images as Master flipped through the files.

"Now that's weird!" she said finally.

"What's weird?" Gakupo asked cautiously as his heart filled with dread.

"Remember how I said the virus was corrupting your memory files?"

"…yeah."

"Well it stopped."

"It WHAT!" Gakupo could hardly believe his ears. "Wha-wha-what does that mean?" he asked in disbelief.

"I'm not sure. It only changed the file format of the memory data from that night on. It's going to be a little tricky, but in theory we should be able to work around it."

"So… I'm not… I mean… I'll live?" Gakupo asked the question slowly as a ray of hope finally dawned upon him.

"Sure."

Gakupo felt like singing. He started to laugh. "I'm… I'm alive!"

Not only that, he was free! He was free from the fear of dying horribly, free from the guilt of leaving Luka alone. He was free!

"Just be cautious," The Master said "I'm still not satisfied with these results."

Gakupo frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I don't know, but my delicate inner sense of danger tells me that there is more to this virus than I can see on Hotaru. Be wary."

Master smiled. "Other than that, I'd give you a clean bill of health. You should be just fine!"

Gakupo yanked the cords out of his back and raced up stairs. He was light headed. He was jovial. He was so happy!

He saw Luka in the living room and he ran up to her and hugged her around the waist and then he picked her up and spun around with her in his arms.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Luka said as she was whisked through the air. "Gakupo? What the—"

"I'm free!" Gakupo cheered and put Luka back on her feet. He turned her towards him and looked into her eyes. "I'm going to live."

Luka looked confused for a moment, her eyes searching his. It took a while for the information to sink in.

But when it did she jumped up and wrapped her arms around his neck and squealed, "Whoopee!"

Rin walked into the room and asked "Luka onee-chan, what's going on?"

Gakupo laughed and said "My virus isn't going to kill me! It's non-fatal!"

Rin started to cry, "Oh that's wonderful!" She hugged Gakupo and he picked her up and put her on his shoulder and she road on his shoulder as they walked around telling everybody the wonderful news.

Kiyoteru high-fived him, Len fist bumped him, Gumi hugged him so hard he almost dropped Rin. Gakupo couldn't find Kaito, but Miku kissed him on the cheek and so did Yuki, who knew nothing about the virus in the first place.

Gakupo changed his laundry smiling. He still had to take a shower, but the whole world seemed to have taken on a luster, like gold. Everything seemed much more precious, much more beautiful.

Picaro walked into the laundry room and Gakupo picked him up and kissed him. "Oh, Picaro you beautiful cat! I'm not going to die!" Picaro started purring and nodded his head, batting his big blue eyes; as if to say "See, I knew it."

Gakupo took a bath and scrubbed himself vigorously. He wanted to wash the bad feelings off and cleanse himself of the entire virus episode. He rubbed himself raw with an old, worn-down was rag and he spent tedious minutes trying to thoroughly wash his hair.

He wondered what hair washing was like for male Vocaloids WITHOUT long purple hair. Probably very quick and easy, since they didn't need to wash three feet of hair.

Once he was sure that he was squeaky clean he stepped out onto the bath mat and un-clogged the drain of all of his lost purple hair.

He felt great! He felt like a new man! He brushed his teeth and put on cologne, and he felt fifty feet tall.

He quickly blow-dried his hair and changed into his fanciest clothes, which was only an eggplant colored suit that had been made special for him. It was really quite comfortable compared to some other suits he had worn for photo shoot and such.

Gakupo checked the time when he went to his room. It was 7:33. He was going to be late! And lord only knew how those pictures would fare on the internet.

Gakupo rushed down stairs humming Dancing Samurai and skipping every second step. He crept into the kitchen and found it darkened.

"Hey, I'm here." He called into the dark as he flipped on a light.

"SUUUUPRISEE!" Gakupo's mouth dropped in shock.

The twins launched confetti from two confetti blasters and almost every Vocaloid in the house was cheering and clapping in a crowd underneath a banner that said "Congratulations" in purple paint.

Gakupo laughed as the twins shoved him over to the table that had been set for two in the center of the crowd. Sweet Ann put a party hat on his head and the Kasanes blew on party horns, and Kaito started a chorus of 'for he's a jolly good fellow.'

"For he's a jolly good fellow

For he's a jolly good fellow,

For he's a jolly good FELLOW!

That isn't going to die!"

Gakupo put his head in his hands and laughed! "These crazy people!" he thought. "These crazy people are related to me!"

He looked up from his hands and saw Luka, immaculately dressed at the other end of the table and all of the other Vocaloid were filing out of the kitchen in a hurry.

"What's going on?" He asked Luka as everyone made a mass exodus from the room.

"Everyone decided to set up a date for us. " Luka smiled. She was wearing a pretty yellow sun dress and had a head band with daisies in her hair. Gakupo thought it looked very fetching.

Len walked up to the table officially. "Hello, I'm Lenard and I'll be your waiter this evening, have you taken a look at your menu's?"

Gakupo snorted a laugh and Len shot him a withering glare. Len was dressed up in a waiter's uniform and it immediately became clear that Rin was behind the planning of this event. There was no way Len would purposely don anything with frills, and the uniform had frilled sleeves and a frilled collar.

Gakupo lifted the 'Menu' which was just another manila folder with the words "Glazed Japanese Eggplant" written in black magic marker.

"Um… I think I'll have the eggplant?" Gakupo said as he handed the 'menu' to Len.

"Hmmm… I think I'll have the same." Luka said handing her 'menu' to Len.

Len bowed. "I'll be right back."

Behind the kitchen counter Rin opened and closed the oven door loudly and handed Len two plates of eggplant that they had made earlier.

Len walked back and set down the two plates of glazed eggplant and passed out another manila folder. "I was wondering if you two would like to see our drink and beverage menu?"

Gakupo flipped open the folder. The drinks had more variety at least.

"Lemonade, Milk, Water, Sake." Gakupo thought about his decision.

"Hmmm… water please?" Len looked towards Luka.

"The same?"

Len collected their menus and headed back around the counter where Rin was already preparing their drinks.

Gakupo looked at Luka. She seemed positively radiant.

"Are you alright?" Luka asked.

"I'm fine." Gakupo said dreamily.

"You're really staring."

"I know." Gakupo said smiling. "I like the view."

Luka sighed and grinned. "You're lucky you're so cute," She teased "'Cause that was NOT smooth at all."

Gakupo laughed, and Luka joined him. For the first time in a long time he felt as though a weight had been taken off of his shoulders.

"Hey." Gakupo developed a strange sparkle in his eye that Luka recognized immediately.

"Oh, no!" But Luka smiled. She was thinking "Oh, yes."

"What do you say we…" Gakupo started to laugh and broke his own sentence. "…let's skip desert." He said seductively.

Suddenly a wooden spoon flew out of the kitchen and knocked against Gakupo's head. Luka broke into a fit of hysterics as Rin hissed.

"You'll eat desert and you'll like it!" and she angrily mumbled something that sounded like. "I work all day over a hot stove…"

Gakupo picked something out of his hair that looked and felt like cake mix. And Luka beat against the table trying to get control of her laughter.

Gakupo picked up his fork thinking "Life is good." And together they dug into the well prepared meal.

Master sat in the darkness thinking. It was all that she had done all day.

She had gotten up, gotten dressed and thought.

Sure she had given Gakupo a checkup and finished the Michael Myers android for her wealthy patron and sure she had scared a girl straight. But all she had done since then was think.

She sighed. "The reason I dove into computer sciences was so that I wouldn't have to deal with emotions or moral gray areas." She said to no one in particular.

The Michael Myers android stood up and came over to her and she reached up to pat it on its head.

"You're just a big softy aren't you?" She asked it tenderly. He, of course, didn't respond.

Master sighed again. She had given Kyoko a serious conversation when she had driven her home that afternoon. She felt like a school guidance counselor, but she just couldn't help it. The girl reminded her of herself.

Suddenly her monitor lit up and Dr. Evil's face was plastered across the screen.

"Dr?"

"Hey, Evil. What's up?"

"Someone just e-mailed me that Gakupo's virus is non-fatal! Is that true?"

Master smiled sadly. "Non-fatal so far. Something tells me that this isn't over."

Dr. Evil gave her a curious look. "What's wrong Dr? You don't seem like yourself."

"Because I'm not myself, you see?"

"I do not, see?"

Master smiled. She always used to play these little word games with her students and collages. They were quoting Alice in Wonderland.

"Amundsen." She said quietly.

Dr. Evil leaned into the monitor. "What was that?"

"It's Dr. Amundsen. He's the one behind all of this."

Dr. Evil leapt back form the screen. "Are you sure?" He asked in a hushed tone.

"I'm positive. I thought this looked like his doing at first, now that I have conformation, I'm sure."

Dr. Evil was silent for a minute. "Then, there is no hope for us is there?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, he's the best of all of us. He was miles ahead of all of us. The only one he ever rivaled with was—"

"Me, Evil." Master said proudly. "The only one who could ever get the better of him was me."

She fixed her coat around her shoulders. "Don't you ever forget it; I'll never, ever let him beat me! Especially not with their lives on the line!"

Dr. Evil looked at her with admiration. He'd sometimes forget how formidable she was as a person.

"I know that Gachapoid Ryuto was supposed to come home in just a few days," She continued "But I'm going to leave him with you for a little while longer. Sweet Ann will still be coming and staying with you, right on schedule."

"Yes ma'am." Evil nodded.

"And Evil?" Master added. "Keep them safe."

Dr. Evil nodded and the screen went black. Master started typing on Hotaru.


	11. Chapter 11

Gakupo calmly roused himself from another gentle dream as the morning began to creep into his room through the window.

He was tired, but in a good way. He had the feeling of accomplishment and fulfillment warming his chest.

He turned his head and watched Luka sleeping. He remembered in the heat of the night how hyper-aware of her he had been. He had felt ever breath, every beat of her heart, everything.

He was still weary of her breathing, but now it was a slow, steady gust of air that blew from the shores of her deepest dreams. He watched her chest rise and fall and he thought of crashing waves against the beach at Aoshima Kaizuiyokujo, where he had visited for a brief photo shoot.

Gakupo reached over and petted Luka's hair. He thought to himself "I never really thought we WOULD… I guess this means we're both serious after all."

Gakupo didn't know why, but since he'd confessed his love to Luka he'd had the sensation that it could only be temporary. That maybe both of them wanted to love each other, but one of them wasn't ready.

Gakupo had feared that having the passion for Luka wouldn't be enough. He wanted her; body, heart and soul. But would he make the commitment?

"There really is no going back now." Gakupo thought as he absentmindedly kissed her hair. "No turning back and no regrets."

Gakupo pulled Luka closer to him. He held her thigh and pressed her against his chest. Luka's eyelashes fluttered like butterfly wings in the springtime. Gakupo thought she would surely wake up, but she only sighed and twitched in sleep.

"Luka? Are you really still sleeping?" Gakupo asked in a whisper.

"No. But I don't feel like moving." Luka said keeping her eyes shut.

Gakupo chuckled and Luka snuggled into him. "How are you feeling?" He asked her.

"Mmn… Amazing!" she blinked the sleep out of her eyes and stared up at Gakupo in the fresh morning light and smiled.

Gakupo felt the heat of her body soaking into his and he rubbed her leg gently. Suddenly the full effect of the night hit Gakupo and he found himself filled with awe.

"You're amazing."

Luka snorted. "Yeah, sure."

Gakupo cried "No, I'm serious!" but he suddenly had the overwhelming urge to form a trail of kisses from her neck to her mouth. "I've never felt this way before; about anyone." He murmured in between kisses.

Luka giggled and blushed while giving a few sweet kisses back.

"I've never felt any emotion this strongly." Gakupo whispered as he took a breath from his kissing.

"Are you thinking about giving me a replay?" Luka wrapped herself around Gakupo "Of all last night?"

Gakupo smiled mischievously. He knew he would do just that, and more.

Suddenly Gakupo's alarm blared right beside both of their heads. Luka let go of Gakupo and checked the time.

Luka swore loudly and rolled out of his bed. "9:30, I'm going to be so late!"

Gakupo tried to hide his disappointment, but it was hard. Luka looked at his face as she gathered various articles of clothing and began laughing.

"Oh, don't look like that!" She stammered as she tried to gather her breath between laughing.

"Like what?" Gakupo asked as he also rolled out of bed from under his covers.

"Like a sad puppy." Luka said kissing his forehead and tucking some of his long purple hair behind his ear tenderly. "It's not like I'm going to be gone forever, it's just a promo-concert right outside of town. I'm going to be back tonight."

Luka began fishing around in the basket of clean clothes that Gakupo had brought up stairs from the laundry room after their impromptu date last night. She triumphantly pulled out a pair of her pink striped panties and slipped them on.

Gakupo watched her slip them on over her curves and found himself cursing their schedules for tearing them apart at such an auspicious time. But what was he to do?

Luka threw on her dress in a hurry and kissed Gakupo before leaving him. "Don't get all hot and bothered," She teased playfully "Save it for tonight."

Gakupo leaned against his elbow as Luka flew out of his room. He loved her so much. It was a shame that circumstances had a way of keeping them separated.

Gakupo clapped his hands together and started to search through his clean clothes. He also had an appointment at 10 and he really didn't want to be late.

He slipped on his jinbaori and tried to find both his underpants and his hakama, but he couldn't find any of the pants he thought he had washed. Gakupo looked through his closet and even the jeans he'd been saving were gone.

Gakupo suddenly realized that even the formal pants he'd worn last night were nowhere to be found on his bedroom floor.

"This is crazy!" He murmured running his hands through his long, unkempt purple hair. "Where the hell did they all go?"

He walked around his room once more, beginning to panic as he traced his steps.

"I know I threw them right here, at the foot of the bed…" Gakupo wondered if maybe he'd accidentally tossed them under the bed. He got down on his knees to look when suddenly the door opened behind him.

"Whew!" Luka exclaimed as Gakupo scrambled to hide his bare cheeks. "What a view!"

Gakupo blushed in horror as Luka grinned wickedly. "You ought to charge to put on a show like that."

"Well- ah, you see…" Gakupo tried to stammer out an excuse but Luka silenced him by holding up his hakama and purple boxers.

"Found these in the living room. I think that the twins might have had something to do with all of your pants disappearing."

Gakupo stood up and grabbed the pants gratefully. "Thanks!" he exclaimed as he quickly pulled on the underpants.

Luka kissed him "I'll give them a talking-to, don't worry."

Gakupo kissed her back "You're amazing!"

"So I've heard." Luka smiled and Gakupo found himself once again dazzled by her brilliance. Just a flash of her pearly white teeth and a sparkle in her eye could make him loose himself in her radiance.

Luka headed down the hallway to finish getting ready for her concert. "And remember," She called back. "There'll be a second showing, same time same place; tonight." She winked at him playfully and disappeared into her room.

Gakupo stood at his door and watched her go awe-struck. He couldn't help but wonder "What did I do to deserve someone like THAT!" Gakupo felt like the luckiest man alive, until Rin walked up stairs.

"Oh, Gakupo onii-chan!"

Gakupo slammed his door and locked it blushing. He didn't want anyone else to see him in his boxers. Much less a Kagamine.

Gakupo came out of his room fully dressed and somewhat frazzled. He'd been in such a rush that he'd accidentally tied his hair with a blue ribbon with a fray through the middle. He didn't have time to try and track down his other ribbons, so he had no choice but to go to his appointment with it.

But it still annoyed him.

He stepped into the hallway just as Kaito and Meiko floated out of Meiko's bedroom. Kaito nuzzled Meiko's neck and Meiko laughed like a school girl as they walked arm-in-arm down the middle of the hallway.

"Well, I see you two are on better terms." Gakupo assessed as they careened past him. "What happened?"

"It's a long, pointless story." Kaito said while looking deep into Meiko's eyes, spellbound.

"But what IS important is that we're getting married." Meiko giggled.

"MARRIED?" Gakupo cried in disbelief. He knew that the senior Vocaloids had been in a relationship for a while, but he thought that their love would be at least a little bit off-set by the week of fighting.

Meiko took Kaito's hands and caressed them gently "Oh, when should we have it?"

"I don't care!" He answered dreamily.

"Where should we have it?"

"I don't care."

Who should get married?" Meiko asked with a glimmer of mischief in her eyes.

"I don't ca—I mean US!" Kaito caught himself suddenly and Meiko laughed.

Gakupo shook his head. He wasn't sure whether or not the law allowed Vocaloids to get married, but he was happy for them being so much in love.

"Oh, snap!" Meiko said suddenly as an alarm went off on her phone. "You're going to be late!" She grabbed Kaito's scarf and began to drag him downstairs.

The scarf tightened around Kaito's neck and before he could protest his air was cut off and he floundered to try and peel the fabric away from his throat.

Gakupo watched as Kaito turned as blue as his hair as he followed the couple downstairs. When Meiko hit the bottom step she released Kaito's scarf and he took a few grateful gasps of air before stumbling outside.

Meiko kissed Kaito goodbye as the color started to return to his face. "See you in a few!"

Kaito nodded as he tried to find his voice. He was still a bit light headed from lack of oxygen.

"Be nice to Uberta!" Meiko added

"Uberta?!" Kaito shouted in disbelief. "That's who we're going to see?"

Gakupo groaned inwardly. Uberta was an amazing photographer who has shot dozens of special Vocaloid albums, posters, promos, etc.; but she was a little bit… crazy.

Gakupo's phone suddenly went off with the master's ring tone: The last queen by Luka Megurine.

"I flare glamorously, soar unsteadily; What color should affect me?"

Gakupo flipped his phone open and immediately he heard the Master yell in on the other end.

"Where the heck are you and Kaito?! I don't want to be responsible for Uberta getting angry again!"

"Wait…" Gakupo responded weakly. "Kaito and I are doing a photo shoot… together?"

"Yeah, IF YOU HURRY! Just go out to the garage and I'LL DRIVE!"

Gakupo heaved a massive sigh. It wasn't that he didn't like working with Kaito, he just didn't like working with Kaito AND Uberta. Uberta was what Gumi would usually call: a KaitoXGakupo fan.

She would generally stop just short of where Gakupo would run out of the studio enraged and embarrassed. Gakupo knew that he was going to be in for a taxing, exhausting and uncomfortable day.

Kaito had turned pale and looked as though he was going to faint. Gakupo wondered how much of his color loss was from being choked and how much was from downright horror.

Gakupo lumbered out of the house slowly and Kaito followed after him glumly. They both felt like doomed men.

Master peeled out of the garage in an electric-blue sports car made for speed. She pulled over to the front of the house and honked the horn impatiently.

Gakupo turned around and grimaced. "I call shot gun?"

Kaito made a face. "You can HAVE it."

Gakupo got in the front of the car and Master began revving the engine. Kaito had barely buckled his seat belt when the Master floored the gas so violently both of the male Vocaloids were thrown back in their seats.

"And –they're off!" Kaito shouted as he tried to lean forward against the G-force.

Gakupo watched as houses and buildings raced past them and suddenly felt sick.

"Don't you think you're going too fast?!" Gakupo shouted over the roar of the engine.

"No, I've got plenty of gas!" Master nodded assuredly.

"What?" Gakupo cried "No, you're driving too FAST!"

"Yes, driving is a BLAST!" Master nodded and Gakupo groaned. He figured that she could hear him, but she was just ignoring him.

Suddenly Kaito screamed in the backseat and Master pounded on the brakes. Gakupo felt himself being flung forward and tried to lean back, but the force was just too strong. The seat belt bit into his skin uncomfortably and Gakupo scanned the road nervously for a child of old person that they might have run over.

Master held the steering wheel, tight knuckled as a turtle crossed in front of the car. Gakupo saw the little turtle flipping its little limbs in a panic as it tried to save its little life from the maniac driving the car.

Master unbuckled her seat belt and exited the car. She got behind the turtle and nudged it with her foot and the frightened reptile pulled its limbs into the shell.

Master sighed and picked it up. She looked around for any other cars and quickly raced over to the grass to deposit the little creature.

Then, as quick as a flash she ran back to the car where Kaito and Gakupo were trying to catch their breath and floored the gas again.

Gakupo felt his face distort as the raw force of the car pressed into him. "I wonder if this is what it's like to be an astronaut?" he thought.

Suddenly the Master switched to the breaks again and swung a hard right, turning the steering wheel as quickly and as hard as she could as the wheels screeched in protest.

Gakupo and Kaito both screamed as the car spun seemingly out of control in the direction of two parked cars.

"This is it!" Gakupo prayed while closing his eyes "I wish I could've seen Luka one last time!"

Then the car came to a gentle stop with a little bump against the curb and Master turned off the engine. Everything was so peaceful and calm that Kaito feared he might have been killed instantly.

"Okay, we're here. Get out."

Gakupo opened the car door and found that his legs would barely hold him. He wobbled to the front of the trendy studio that rested in the center of the town and leaned against the brick wall for support.

Kaito tried to get out of the car and fell on his face. He looked green and sick and he wandered over to a patch of grass where he bent over and held his knees.

"Uuurgh!" he moaned as the world slowly stopped spinning around him.

"Oh, don't be such babies!" Master exclaimed as she pulled Kaito by the collar and dragged Gakupo by his elbow into the studio. "There shall be worse horrors for you inside! Mwahahahaha!"

The inside of the studio was an enormous, warehouse- like building with dozens of miniature stages for various types of photo shoots.

Gakupo passed one with large red mushrooms and one that looked like a post-apocalyptic waste land before he found Uberta. She was really hard to spot, because she was wearing a jump-suit that looked like it was made from Dalmatian spots with white and black makeup on a white and black speckled background.

Gakupo stared hard at the scene when he thought he saw something. "Uberta?" He asked out loud as he crept closer scrutinizing the whole scene.

Suddenly two of the spots of the background became two brown eyes and Gakupo jumped back in horror.

Uberta stepped away from the patterned back ground and Kaito watched in amazement. It was as though the pattern itself came to life and jumped off the screen.

"Gackt! Darling!" Uberta cried reaching up with her long black fingernails and patting him on the face. "You've still got that critical eye I told you about! No doubt about it, you are an artist! A perfect arsIST"

Gakupo pulled himself away from the crazy woman. She seemed to be about sixty, but Gakupo couldn't tell much of how she really looked. She was always wearing crazy outfits and weird make-up. The last time he'd had a photo shoot she looked like a bed of flowers that had risen up straight from the ground. The time before she had worn a full body suit of black spandex.

Gakupo shuddered as Uberta turned her back to him and went to accost poor Kaito.

Kaito could never get used to Uberta popping up from weird places in weird costumes. He watched in numb terror as the Dalmatian pattern came over and petted his face. He swallowed hard and suppressed a tremor of fear.

Uberta turned to the Master. "Nikki, darling!" she teased waving her long black nails. "What have you done to the poor fellows, they're as quiet as death!"

The Master smiled politely "I TOLD you not to call me Nikki; that's NOT my name." her eye started to twitch and Gakupo could see the simmering anger beneath the surface.

"You still look like a Nikki dear, and so long as you never change you'll always be my Nikki!" Uberta waved the Master out with one of her exaggerated gestures and the Master gave the boys a sad look and raced out of the studio.

Uberta reached into the background and pulled out her camera which had been painted to match the black and white spots. "Now, let's get down to it boys! We'll be working at stage 12B, in the front! On the double!"

Gakupo and Kaito followed her in between weird scenes to the front of the studio near the exit. Uberta was talking to them all the time but none of what she said seemed to make sense.

"And all this time I never—well you know how it is in industry! I just can't believe how popular vampires have become! Everyone who comes in asks: 'can you shoot me as a vampire' and I can't seem to keep enough red contacts in stock! But just the other day…"

Gakupo listened to the woman ramble until suddenly she came to a stop in front of a scene and she started texting into her phone.

Gakupo figured that the scene they had stopped at would be the one they would shoot at, but he reeled in horror when he took a good look at it.

It was sky-blue and lilac pillows piled everywhere with yellow and black ribbons and flowers scattered at random. Gakupo knew that Uberta would want them to lie down and lounge in the scene, but he refused to lay with Kaito.

Gakupo was just about to say so when Uberta's super team of makeup artists and costume designers flooded into the scene and grabbed the two Vocaloids by the arms.

"I hope you don't mind, dolls." Uberta said as they were dragged into a miniature make-up salon that had been set up just beyond the set. "I had my team set up a costume and make up ahead of time."

Kaito cried out "Nooooooooo!" in a melodramatic fashion while Gakupo just gritted his teeth as a myriad of blushes and rouges and gels and powders was run over his skin.

"Is all of this really necessary?" Gakupo asked like he did every time he came to a photo shoot.

"Yes!" Everyone responded in unison.

When something brushed past his lips Gakupo pulled away in disgust.

"I do NOT need lipstick!" He cried out indignantly.

"It's not lipstick, its gloss. And trust me, you do." Said one of the make-up artists.

Gakupo wondered how badly the girls were treated when THEY came to a photo shoot. He couldn't imagine Luka putting up with getting made-over for long.

"Besides, she's already perfect." Gakupo let a smile slip as the ribbons and hair tie were yanked out of his hair.

"Yeouch!" He cried "Leave me some hair back there please!"

Gakupo listened to Kaito complain "What the hell is this stuff? It burns!"

Gakupo sighed and braced himself against the pushy, pinchy grabby hands of the hairstylist who came in after the make-up artists.

The hair stylist was a graying Russian man with large arms and a copper tan "What in hell you do his hair!?" he called out to the fleeing make-up artists.

Thankfully, Gakupo's hair was the simplest part of the whole affair. The hair stylist brushed it flat and added a gel to keep it from getting knotty.

Gakupo thanked him as he left and the man muttered something derogatory in Russian.

Next came the costume designer who showed Gakupo his outfit.

"It's nice." Gakupo said observing the unnecessary frills on the shoulder and the tightness of the pants with discomfort. "But where's the rest of it?" He was referring to the obvious lack of an undershirt beneath the jacket.

The costume designer smiled and Gakupo suddenly realized. "This is the rest of it?" She nodded.

The costume designer showed him how to put it on and Gakupo quickly realized that Uberta would have to make this photo shoot short; otherwise he would end up spilling out of his costume.

Gakupo wondered how Luka's concert was going as he tried to walk uncomfortably out of the little make up studio.

Luka looked at her face in the mirror and sighed. She looked perfect in the low light, but she wondered how she would look under the dazzling spotlights.

Luka tried to ease the butterflies in her stomach by sipping water, but it was no use. She was super excited to be in concert again, no matter how short or small.

Luka smiled. She wondered how Gakupo's photo shoot was going. She knew Uberta could be a handful, but she always had the best results.

She hoped Gakupo would be alright. She knew he had a strong sense of pride, and dealing with Uberta had always made him angry in the past.

Luka wondered if this time would be any different.

She tried singing the scales as high as she could go, then she thought of Gakupo last night and she found she could sing an octave higher. Luka blushed and laughed.

"Megurine-san?" The stage producer knocked on her door.

"Yes?"

"You're on!"

"Thanks!" Luka grinned from ear to ear. She couldn't help it. Her favorite thing about singing was the concerts; when she could be face-to-face with thousands of her fans at once. The energy at a Vocaloid concert was always high and fun.

Luka made her way around to the side of the stage where a man was introducing her and waited.

"You're virtual diva! Megurine Luka!"

Luka quickly walked onstage and waved to the audience which was spread out beneath the stage like a neon ocean. Every audience member had glow-in-the-dark bracelets and some members had neon-pink tuna. Luka's favorite food.

"How is everybody tonight?!" Luka called out to the crowd.

Most audience members cheered in a roar of approval and Luka felt herself light up with happiness but from somewhere in the front somebody booed.

Luka ignored that audience member and started singing the first song: Double Lariat.

"An 85 cm radius is as far as my hands can reach

I'm going to show you now, so please stand back"

During the musical interlude between verses Luka was spinning and she found that she couldn't stop smiling. It was so good to be back on stage!

Luka wondered how Gakupo was doing as she began the second verse:

"It was fun to spin aimlessly, and I wanted to stay that way

If I kept on spinning aimlessly, I believed something could come of it

My pals around me could spin so much higher than me

So I pretended to sulk when my neck grew sore from watching from below"

As Luka went into the chorus, something exploded on the stage to the left of her and the band stopped playing. Audience members screamed and Luka brought her hand to her face and pulled it away.

She was bleeding.

The stage manager ran over and put his arm around her and led her off stage as Luka began to panic.

"Somebody, call her Manager!" the stage manager cried. Luka knew he meant the Master, but she was having a hard time understanding things.

Luka was dizzy and scared. She marched on as the band evacuated the stage behind her, then she heard another POP!

More screams followed and Luka was taken to her dressing room while the stage manager yelled at the master on the phone.

"You're not going to BELIEVE this! What do you mean you know? Already on the net!" the stage manager looked at Luka and swore "Damn kids! Well we need you down here to fix her!"

The stage manager listened for a minute before screaming into his phone "Of COURSE! Who in the right mind would stay! The show is super-canceled! And until we can get to the bottom of this, so is the one for next year!... NO! YOU BE REASONABLE!"

Luka listened silently and sullenly as the manager screamed himself hoarse. She wanted to know what was causing the pain in her face, but she was too scared to look in the mirror.

Finally her curiosity got the better of her and she slowly turned her head.

It was terrible! There was one large piece of twisted, charred metal right below her eye and about four other smaller pieces that had dug into her cheek.

Luka rubbed her finger over the cuts and winced as they smarted. She felt tears build up in her eyes. "Who could do such a thing?" she wondered as the Manager screamed away his fear and stress at the Master on the phone.

"BWAHAHAHAhahahahaha!" Kaito couldn't control his laughter. "Oh my god! Oh my GOD! HAhahahaha!"

Gakupo sulked as Kaito tried to breath over his laughing. "What did they DO to you?" Kaito said finally after wiping a tear from his eye.

Gakupo smirked. "No worse than what they did to you, apparently."

Kaito's pants had the same frills as Gakupo's shirt, only on Kaito they hung like a skirt around his knees. And Kaito also didn't have an undershirt.

"Man, we've been DE-MASCULINIZED!" Kaito said after catching sight of himself in the mirror.

"I'll say!" Gakupo looked himself over and found that his face was ghost-pale while his eyes were coated in violet eye shadow.

"You know what! I'm not going to stand for it!" Gakupo said clenching his fist.

Kaito cheered "Yeah!"

"I'm going to tell Uberta to…" Gakupo was about to tell Uberta that he wasn't going to take the photo-shoot, but when he turned around he found her standing there.

"Uh…"

Uberta had heard the whole tirade, but she refused to let her artistic vision be changed by two Nay-Sayers.

She smiled. "Time to go! Chop-chop!"

And she pulled Gakupo along down the studio toward the scene while he tried to stammer out an argument. "I really don't want to—uncomfortable….—rather not!"

But Uberta was beyond listening. She was trying to envision some of the poses she could get the two into.

Kaito followed sadly. He'd learned from a few years of loving Meiko that there was a point when a man had to give up. Gakupo hadn't realized it yet, but they had reached that point.

"Give up." Kaito advised him glumly. "It's out of our hands now. Fighting it any further would just be cruel hubris."

Gakupo was far from done trying to get free. "Huber-wha?"

"Hubris. It's foolish male pride that generally leads to the down fall of a main character in a story." Kaito explained quickly.

Gakupo gestured to his head. "Look around man, were not in a story; this is real life! In REALITY you fight for what you believe in!"

Kaito shook his head. "We're already in the costumes. We might as well get this over with."

Uberta reached the scene and she shoved Gakupo into the pillows.

"Whoa!"

"I like you!" She said to Kaito as she started arranging pillows around Gakupo. "If only my husband was that accommodating."

Gakupo floundered against the pillows and found it hard to pull himself up with no support from the ground.

"I don't want to do this!"

Uberta didn't seem to hear him and continued putting yellow flowers in his hair and swapping purple pillows out from under him for blue ones.

"I'm going to leave!"

Uberta lead Kaito over to where Gakupo was laying and made Kaito lay upside down near his head.

"Traitor!" Gakupo hissed and he tried to pick himself up without drowning or suffocating in the super-fluffy pillows.

Kaito grimaced. "The sooner it's over, the sooner we get to go home and pretend it never happened."

Gakupo sighed and gave up. He buried his face into one of the pillows and tried to suffocate, but Uberta flipped him over onto his back.

Uberta stood over them and carefully made little changes to the scenery with her foot.

"Okay, Gakupo. I need you to look seductively at Kaito."

"No." Gakupo said flatly.

"Okay," Uberta continued without noticing Gakupo was serious. "And Kaito, I need you to take a lock of his hair, wrap it around your hand and kiss it."

"I don't want to." Kaito said plainly.

"Let's go! I want this in thirty shots." Uberta turned on several lighting fixtures and blinded the boys with super bright spotlights.

"I hate this." Gakupo said as he tried to blink away the spots that appeared in his vision.

"I want it in thirty, but I'll stay here as long as it takes to get this shot." Uberta warned.

Gakupo and Kaito shared significant looks.

"Think of Luka?" Kaito asked.

"Think of Meiko." Gakupo nodded. "And we'll never tell them."

"I'll try to make sure they never see the picture." Kaito agreed.

Gakupo thought of Luka in the darkness, Luka in the tent, Luka in his bedroom, Luka in the morning and he focused on her smile, on her body.

Kaito and Uberta melted away and Gakupo focused on Luka and wondered how her concert was going.

Luka was done crying.

She had begun crying in her dressing room until the Master came to pick her up in her car. And when she caught sight of herself in the mirror she had begun crying again.

"It's going to be alright." Master had said while rubbing her shoulder. But Luka knew that things had changed forever.

"No it's not." She had whispered.

It wasn't random. Someone who knew Vocaloid and knew her had specifically brought a grenade to HER concert and thrown it AT HER.

Luka felt so awful. It might as well have been one of her own fans. She felt horribly exposed and vulnerable.

Luka wondered if this was how Gakupo felt after he'd been attacked. So helpless and so scared.

Suddenly Master slammed on the breaks and Luka felt herself flung forward and Master swore and the seatbelt bit into her chest painfully.

"…damn turtle!" Master exited the car and ran into the middle of the road where a little turtle was desperately trying to cross the street. Master bent her leg at the knee and kicked the poor thing across the road and into a pond on the other side.

Luka was relieved to see the poor turtle swimming in the pond, shaken but alive.

"Why did you do that?" Luka asked the Master incredulously when she came back into the car.

"That's the same turtle that was crossing this SAME ROAD before!" Master pointed to the innocent looking turtle that had pulled itself onto the shore of the pond. "This is the third time I've had to slam on the breaks for it! I think it just has a death wish."

"Come on!" Luka said "Seriously? A suicidal turtle?"

"Look!" The Master cried pointing at the turtle as it lumbered out of the pond and back towards the road.

"Huh." Luka said as it reached the road and began to cross in front of the car. "Maybe it just can't make up its mind?"

Master spoke through gritted teeth. "Yeah, I guess so." She waited for the turtle to reach the other side before she started driving. Luka watched the turtle in the car's side-view mirror and she saw it turn around and start to cross the road again.

"Hm. Just goes to show, no matter how bad you think you have it, there is always someone who has it worse." Luka said.

"Yes." Master said sarcastically "Let us all be glad that we have a better life than a suicidal turtle."

Master pulled the car up in front of the house and told Luka to go to the basement while she parked the car in the garage. Luka got out of the car and watched the Master pull the car into the driveway around the house.

Luka looked up at the house and felt dizzy again. She absent mindedly rubbed her cheek and gasped when it hurt her.

"Gosh! That looks like a terrible wound Miss!" Luka spun around to find a young girl of about sixteen staring at her face.

Luka sheepishly stepped away and murmured. "…accident."

"What a horrible accident!"

Luka scanned the blonde girl and began to feel self-conscious about her face. The girl was VERY pretty with soft blonde hair and a fashionable black turtle neck and laid-back jeans.

Luka caught a splash of color from the corner of her eye and found that the girl had a lovely little red flower pin tied with a blue ribbon attached to her sweater.

The girl removed the pin and handed it to Luka. "When I got hurt, my mommy gave me this pin and it gave me hope, now I hope that you get better. I want you to have this."

Luka shook her head. "No, I couldn't!"

The girl suddenly looked sad. "Please Megurine-San! If not for me, then take it for all of your fans that hope for you to get better!"

Luka took the pin and stared at the girl in amazement. She knew who she was!

"We heard about the attack and a bunch of my friends were shocked! We hope you weren't too upset about what one crazy terrorist did to your show. We all just want you to get better."

Luka smiled and attached the pin to her shirt. She reached out and petted the girl's head. "Thank you. What is your name?"

The girl's face lit up. "Mimoko! I'm Mimoko Hiyami!"

Luka felt warmth spreading in her chest. "Thank you Hiyami-San! I'll treasure this forever!"

Master opened the front door and called out "Luka? Where did you go?" and Luka had to turn around and go inside. She waved at Mimoko Hiyami and smiled brightly as she disappeared into the house.

"Who was that?" Master asked as she lead Luka into the basement-lab to fix her face.

"A fan." Luka said.

Luka stroked the petals of the flower pin and smiled. Even when she was attacked or criticized, she knew that she would always be a singer. It was the love of fans like Hiyami-san that kept her singing. She was grateful for all of the fans like her.

Gakupo was going to explode.

Well, not really.

He had been teased, tortured, de-masculinized and humiliated but this was the final straw.

"Where are my things?" He demanded through gritted teeth.

"I don't know Kamui-san!" the young make-up artist pleaded. "They were right here on the table, now they're gone!"

Gakupo had gotten his jinbaori and hakama back, but he was now missing his earphones, hair ribbons and hair clip.

"I'm missing something too." Kaito shouted over to him as they tried to collect their things and forget the horrible experience.

"What are you missing?" Gakupo asked.

"Well. My left shoe." Gakupo spun around and saw that Kaito held one shoe in his hand and the other was gone.

"Seriously? This is how your company treats high-end clients?" Gakupo hardly ever played the 'super-star' card, but he found that if he acted like a diva people would move much quicker.

"I'm so sorry!" the poor make-up artist apologized.

"It's not your fault; just help us find our stuff!" Gakupo said finally.

Gakupo, Kaito and the make-up artist had been all over the dressing room and they still couldn't find any of their things half an hour later so Kaito and Gakupo trudged home feeling defeated and exhausted.

"Why do we even bother?" Kaito asked. "We get abused by our fans and abused by the people who're supposed to help us… what is the point of living if we're such sad creatures? "

"Speak for yourself." Gakupo said. "Very seldom is there any Gakupo-abuse. It just happens to be on the rise lately."

Kaito grunted in reply.

Gakupo smiled. "Have you seen that one web-site that's been going viral?"

"Probably? What's it called?"

"The #Stop-Kaito-Abuse-Group."

"Really, that's viral?"

"No, but it's pretty large."

Kaito snorted a laugh. "Doesn't feel like it."

Gakupo and Kaito approached the Vocaloid family house after a long trek through town. Kaito noticed a turtle making its way through the yard and he bent over to pick it up.

"Hey, check it out! A turtle!"

Gakupo cried "Don't pick it up! Turtles have all kinds of diseases!"

"Really?" Kaito looked at the turtle closely and the turtle came of its shell to look at him.

"Hey, Gakupo… you don't suppose that this could be the same turtle… do you?"

Gakupo looked at him and the turtle inquisitively. "From this morning? No way!"

"But it really looks a lot like…" Kaito tried to continue but Gakupo cut him off.

"All turtles look the same, put it down and don't touch anything until you wash your hands."

Gakupo pushed his cascading purple hair behind his ears and sighed. He hoped that Luka's day had gone better than his.

Gakupo walked in to the house and took in a deep breath. The whole house smelled of baking pastries and Gakupo realized he hadn't eaten all day. He told Kaito to go and wash his hands and he made his way to his room to try and fix his hair.

He was frustrated to find that the twins had returned all of his pants by dumping them on his bed in a mountain of boxers, briefs and hakamas.

He rifled through his drawers until he found his replacement hair ribbons and his replacement hair clip. He watched himself in the mirror as he tied his hair back comfortably and then he decided to investigate the delicious smells wafting up from the kitchen.

He made his way to the kitchen when Luka surprised him by coming out of the basement.

Master called up. "Okay, that should do it, come back to me if you're not comfortable with the changes!"

"What changes?" Gakupo asked and Luka suddenly turned pale.

Gakupo immediately could sense something was wrong. "What happened?" He demanded sweeping her into his arms.

Luka searched for the right words "uh, I-uh…"

Gakupo softly smoothed her hair away from her face. "It's alright." He said calmly. "You know you can tell me anything."

"It was… my concert…" Luka tried to form the right words, but even though she felt safe talking to Gakupo, she still couldn't quite describe what had happened.

Luka listened to the television blaring in the living room and wordlessly she dragged Gakupo into the room and changed it from cartoons to the news.

Luka picked the right station because the news cast was showing footage from the concert. Gakupo watched as something exploded onstage and Luka suddenly started bleeding from her face.

He covered his mouth with his hands and gasped in horror as he watched her being led off stage as hundreds of fans ran for their life.

"That was the shocking scene at a Vocaloid concert for the singer slash songwriter Megurine Luka; officers say that the performer was hurt along with two other members of her band by—get this—shrapnel from a grenade that was thrown on stage by a crazed fan. No word yet on the condition of the singer—"

Gakupo turned off the television and Luka stared at the black screen for a few seconds longer. It still didn't seem real to her. She absentmindedly rubbed her face.

Gakupo ran his hand over her face and the spell was broken. Luka's eyes flickered and met his and she began to melt into him.

"I don't know, Gakupo. I just don't know."

"It's okay." He whispered calmly.

Luka laughed. He was the second person to tell her that tonight. But oddly enough even though she didn't quite believe him, it made her feel better to hear him say it.

Luka buried her face in his jinbaori and stayed there, hidden and warm in the folds of him.

"The sun is setting." Luka said

"Yes." Gakupo agreed.

"Do you remember where you were sunset yesterday?"

"Was I eating?" Gakupo wondered aloud.

Luka grinned sadly. "Yes, you were. Bad example."

Gakupo smiled at her. "It's okay, I know what you meant."

Luka looked up into his eyes and found herself lost in the shades of purple. "Are you ready for the second showing?"

Gakupo rested his chin on her head. "Only if you are, my sweet."

Luka inhaled his scent deeply and suddenly felt empty and passionate.

"Only if you are."

Gakupo took her hand and kissed it as he led her upstairs.

"Do you remember where we were one week ago?" he asked

Luka thought for a minute. "Oh, you mean!"

Gakupo nodded. "That's right. One week ago tonight."

One week ago tonight Gakupo had confessed his unyielding love for Luka; one week ago tonight Luka had found the courage to speak of her love for Gakupo.

Luka shook her head. "So much has happened in a week!"

Gakupo chuckled. "We've laughed, we've cried…"

Luka cut in "LOTS of crying!"

Gakupo continued. "We've gone on a date, had a romantic evening, been attacked by a movie-monster…"

Luka wondered out loud "Is Michael Myers a MONSTER, or just a killer?"

"I don't know." Gakupo admitted as he led Luka to his room. "But I promise you that tonight is the climax of it all!"

"Ooh!" Luka was excited until she looked in the room.

Gakupo slapped his head. He still hadn't put away the pants that had been returned to him by the Kagamines. They were still in a pile on his bed.

Luka laughed. "Hahaha! At least they did as I told them!" Gakupo beamed as he dumped the pants onto the floor.

He looked at Luka and patted the pillows on his bed. Luka smoothly leapt over the pile of clothes and jumped on top of him nimbly as a cat.

Gakupo smiled and started to undress her when he caught sight of an unusual pin…

Gakupo suddenly sat up, making Luka tumble over.

Gakupo grabbed the pin on her shirt and tried to detach it.

"Gakupo, what are you doing?" Luka asked flustered and confused.

"Where did you get this pin?" Gakupo asked finally pulling it off of Luka's chest and starting to dismantle it.

"From a fan today, what are you doing? You'll break it!" Luka cried as she reached for it.

Gakupo pulled off the blue ribbon from the red flower and showed it to her. "This is my ribbon!" He said suddenly very scared. "I lost it today at the photo shoot."

Luka understood what Gakupo was implying but she stared at him in abstract horror. "You- You're wearing your ribbons!"

"I put them in when I came home. The ribbon I wore out of the house this morning was frayed up the middle." Gakupo showed Luka the rip up the center of the blue ribbon.

"And it was stolen from the studio with my hair clip and Kaito's left shoe!"

"His shoe, what?" Luka put her head in her hands and rocked back and forth. She understood what Gakupo was saying, she was just having trouble making sense of it.

"She wasn't a fan. Or, at least not a normal fan." Gakupo said hugging Luka around the elbows.

"You mean she was… one of THEM?"

Gakupo tried to respond but suddenly an enormous crash rocked the whole house.

"Danger, danger!" Hotaru's voice chimed from Gakupo's laptop and he shot out of bed to flip it open.

Master was streaming a video from the basement and several red alarms were blaring at the same time.

"…warning, to all Vocaloid who receive this message. Do not engage the people wearing black. Make your way up to Gakupo's room and escape down the old elm tree into the back yard and through the back gate into the neighbor's yard. Gakupo and Luka will give you instructions from there. Make your way to Hishoboki hill, I repeat Hishoboki hill…"

Miku was running around the basement in a panic. "What do I do?"

Master barked at her. "Nothing, stay here!" And she picked up a plastic PVC pipe that she held like a sword.

"Come on Michael," She motioned to the large android in the shadows. "We've got work to do."

Master raced upstairs with the large masked android on her heels and Miku not far behind, but once Miku reached the top of the stairs Gakupo watched as Master slammed the door shut. Gakupo heard a key clicking into place and a deadbolt locking as Miku banged against the door.

"Let me out!"

Gakupo brought his hand to his head and pushed aside his bangs. It had finally happened. They had finally come.

Luka looked up at him from the bed with the same expression of horror. "What now?"

Gakupo shook away the fear and picked up his sword. Unsheathing it he said: "We get everybody out."

Gakupo heard a squeal from just outside his door and he threw it open to find Kagamine Rin having her hair pulled by a stranger in a black mask. Len was pummeling the stranger in the back, but he might as well have stood still for all the good it did him.

Gakupo took his elbow and slammed the stranger into the wall with all of his force. The stranger sank to the ground unconscious and Rin raced into his room with Len close behind.

Luka held them briefly to make sure they were alright then she began forcing the window open.

"Be careful." She told Gakupo as he checked the hallway for anymore Vocaloids coming down the hall.

"Get them there safely." Gakupo said nodding and he ran down the hall and down the stairs to join Master in the fray.


	12. Chapter 12

Gakupo raced past the Kasanes on his way down the hall. Ted had a baseball bat and was being reluctantly led along by Teto who was pale and frenzied as she scurried into Gakupo's room murmuring something about Miku.

Gakupo reached the stairway just as Master shouted up to him "Look out, a few got through!"

He looked down and saw three people in black masks climbing the stairs. One of them stopped when it noticed Gakupo and the other two crashed into its back.

Gakupo snickered. "It couldn't be this easy?" he thought as he jumped down the steps and slammed his shoulder into the first masked teen.

The first teen fell into the other two and they tumbled screaming down the stairs into a heap on the floor.

Gakupo ran down the stairs two at a time until he came upon a hellish sight. The entire Vocaloid living room was destroyed, furniture was over turned and electronics were shattered. Their television was lying in shards of glass all across the room. And in front of the door dozens of black-masked strangers stood around or dodged around the Master and the Michael Myers android, trying to dart past them in order to get deeper into the house.

The Master was swinging a long plastic PVC pipe like a samurai sword and hitting the strangers hard in the stomach or head with pin-point accuracy.

The Michael Myers android was simply picking up people and throwing them back out the door into the night, where they would brush themselves off and run back inside.

"The hell is going on here?" Gakupo cried as two people tried to grab him suddenly. He beat them back with his sheathed sword and then cracked one randomly over the back of the head as it tried to dart past him to get upstairs.

Gakupo suddenly heard a child crying and he spun around to find that Kaai Yuki was being pulled out of a cabinet in the living room where she'd been hiding. She kicked and lashed against the stranger who pulled at her ankles and Gakupo finally and decidedly lost his temper.

He ignored everyone and everything else as he strode across the room. He was so angry he saw red and he didn't think twice about beating the stranger across the face with his sheath.

Blunt as the sword was, Gakupo beat the person so violently he drew blood. When he was done he noticed that a small crowd had formed around him. A group of people who wanted to confront him, but didn't want to meet the same fate as their friend, who lay bloody and unconscious on the floor.

Panting he picked the sobbing Yuki up in one arm and his blunt weapon in the other arm. He needed to force a path to the stairs open so that he could maybe find someone to get Yuki out of the house to safety.

"Gakupo onii-chan! Over here!" Like the answer to his prayers, Gumi pulled a frightened Kiyoteru down the stairs.

"Perfect!" Gakupo thought, swiping aside the wall of people with his sword but almost as soon as he began to hope, a large group of black masked strangers surrounded the two.

Gumi gave a shriek and Gakupo began to swing his sword wildly as his heart sank into his stomach. But he didn't need to worry. Gumi punched and threw her elbows making several people fly off into walls and into the living room.

Kiyoteru crouched down with his hands over his head while Gumi picked up strangers and tossed them away with disregard for their well-being.

Some people smashed into walls face first, while some landed on their backs and scurried out of Gumi's way. Some didn't get back up at all, while one landed right on Michael Myers who emotionlessly caught it and tossed it like a sack of flour out the door.

Gakupo made a path to Gumi and wordlessly passed Yuki to her. Gumi, to his horror, tossed Yuki into the air.

The little girl tucked herself into a ball as she summersaulted through the air and Kiyoteru dove off the steps to catch her. He made it just in time.

He pressed her close to his chest and she uncurled revealing her red face, shiny with tears.

"Get out, go!" Master yelled across the room. "Gakupo's room, down the tree, north on Elm, up the hill! Now!"

Kiyoteru nodded, still looking shocked and pale, and he stumbled upstairs. Six people tried to follow him, but Gakupo and Gumi together stopped them from getting up stairs.

Kaito rustled the back of her hair and she giggled as she pressed against him, longing for more of his flavor.

"You smell like vanilla." She said laughing.

"You know what they say," Kaito said stroking the sides of her face. "You are what you eat."

"So I'm pretzels, and you're ice cream?" Meiko wondered aloud as Kaito rolled her over and leaned over her. She tried to pull him down into an even hotter kiss, but Kaito suddenly jerked his head up and away.

Meiko perked her ears and she realized that outside her room there was some kind of cataclysm going on. Someone was crying, something was breaking and the thunderous pounding of feet was everywhere.

"Sounds like a fight." She said falling back into her bed. Fights were nothing new in the Vocaloid house.

Kaito however rolled off of her and made for the door to investigate. Meiko sighed and followed him solemnly, wanting to try and entice him back into her bed.

Kaito made his way into the hallway and with shock he found someone in a black mask slumped on the floor. Kaito kicked him lightly with his foot and the passed out person stirred briefly.

"Oh my God!" Meiko mumbled as Kaito wrapped his arm protectively around her waist. "Are there more?" Suddenly Gakupo swore so loudly it floated upstairs and Kaito felt a charge of panic as he realized that there was a roar of chatter coming from below.

Meiko followed Kaito as swiftly as a shadow as he suddenly flew down the hallway and down stairs. As he reached the bottom steps a small crowd of black-masked teenagers who were about to run upstairs turned and spotted him.

"OMIGAWDKAITO!" One of them squealed and Kaito winced as he tried to jump back and run to safety upstairs, but one of the faster reacting fan girls seized his scarf in one fluid motion and tugged hard, cutting off escape and air flow.

"Bleakh!?" Kaito grabbed onto the stair-rails as he was suddenly tugged downward. The four girls forced him over, making him fall down the last four steps.

He banged his knee painfully against the last step as four sets of hands pushed him to the ground. His face was smashed into the carpet and he felt the rug burn searing his cheek as somebody called for something called 'the plug'.

Meiko watched in numb horror for a moment as she absorbed the scenario in all of its unbelievable violence and magnitude. Then she felt her blood boiling.

Kaito felt a fifth pair of hands start searching down the back of his neck, making his hair stand on end.

"Damn it Kaito! Stand the hell up!" Gakupo screamed as he furiously swung his blunt sword like a tennis racket; trying to beat open a path to Kaito in panic.

Kaito bucked and twisted, but he couldn't fight the pressure pinning him to the floor. "Where's Meiko? Kaito thought frenziedly "Did they grab her too?"

Suddenly something shattered above Kaito and one of the bodies over top of him slouched over, crushing him beneath its weight.

"What the hell is your problem!" Meiko cried slamming another beer bottle over somebodies head. "We freaking sing for you people, we let you write and draw those nasty UNTRUE things! AND THIS IS HOW YOU THANK US?"

Meiko had darted back up to her room and grabbed an armful of empty beer bottles which she was not only using as clubs, but also pitching across the room to hit unsuspecting intruders on the other side.

Kaito wriggled out from underneath the unconscious fan and grabbed a bottle from Meiko's arms.

"Do you know how much I love you?" He said smiling as he smashed the bottle over somebodies head.

Meiko grinned mischievously. She had been itching for a fight since her last night of bar-hopping didn't end in a bar-brawl.

She stood on her toes and stole a quick kiss before officially starting to fight with all of the gusto she could muster.

Meiko slammed people into walls, kicked people in the face, and punched one person so hard that a shiny white tooth flew out of the mouth hole cut into the ski-mask.

Kaito took off his scarf, since he was afraid somebody would grab it and choke him again and he picked up a broken table leg and began using it as a bat. He took swipes at people's legs as they ran by and occasionally at people when they strayed too close.

After a little while, Master, Gakupo, Gumi, Kaito and Meiko had all fought their way together and they gathered by the staircase whispering rapidly as the last twelve or so members of the gang in black huddled just outside the open front door, barely hidden by the darkness.

Gakupo was exhausted. He hadn't realized how difficult fighting so many opponents would be. "What now?" he whispered watching the shadows move just beyond the door.

"Now… I don't know." Master glanced over to the Michael Myers robot which lay lifeless on the floor. Someone had jumped on his back and used what Gakupo called 'the plug' to knock him out. Master grimaced. "So much for the buyer in Florida." She thought sadly "He probably won't want him now."

"Hey, did anyone else notice that they were… grabby?" Meiko added as she rubbed her arms where fan-girls had roughly pinched her skin raw with their grubby little fingers.

Kaito nodded and held up the tattered hem of his overcoat. "They grabbed onto my coat and wouldn't let go…" he murmured sadly.

Gumi cocked her eyebrows confused. "I didn't notice any of that at all!"

Gakupo looked over his shoulder at where Gumi had thrown somebody so hard that her head had dented the wall . "Of course she wasn't touched!" he thought, "Nobody wanted to go near her!"

Master rubbed her fingers through her hair, as she was prone to do when she was stressed.

"Kaito, Meiko." She talked into the floor as she held her head in her hands. "I need you to go to the hill where all of the other Vocaloid are hiding. Go there and stay there until I send you a message on Hotaru via your phone."

Meiko stomped her feet. "What! Why us?" She exclaimed furiously.

"Because I said so." Master responded quietly, but Gakupo could hear the storm clouds of anger rolling in her voice.

Master shook her head and sent her fluffy ginger hair bouncing around. "No, I'm sorry. It's just because besides Luka, there are no other adults up there."

"There's Hiyami-sensei." Gumi interjected.

"No other adults." Master pressed in a slightly dangerous tone.

"There's Teto, and Ted." Gakupo said as Master's mood turned dark.

"As I said; no other adults. You need to make sure everyone's okay."

Kaito understood at once what Master's intentions were. He suddenly realized that the four Vocaloids were in more danger fighting together than apart.

"Come one, let's just go." Kaito said gently taking Meiko's hand in his own.

Meiko looked down at Kaito's hand for a moment in contemplation. Then, she reluctantly followed him upstairs.

Gakupo listened to them enter his room. He heard the door creak open and her heard their footsteps as they crawled out the window.

Gakupo rubbed one of the welts forming on his arm. He'd been hit with one of the legs of a chair when a fan girl decided to use it as a sword.

"Do you have a plan?" He asked "Truthfully."

Master caught his eye and quickly looked away. "Maybe; I don't know."

Gumi touched Gakupo's arm lightly. "Don't worry." She smiled and said. "It doesn't matter how many of them there are; I'll protect you no matter what!"

Gakupo forced a chuckle, though he wasn't in the mood to laugh "That's supposed to be my line" he said glumly.

He brushed one of her long green bangs away from her face. "I wish you could rely on your big brother to protect you."

"Would you—" Master started to speak and then her eyes darted over the disaster that was once her living room.

Master's eyes filled with tears as she saw all of the disaster that she had brought upon her precious Vocaloid.

"Please. Gakupo, Gumi; Unbolt the door to the basement and go inside and I'll re-bolt it behind you."

"No way!" Gumi shouted, balling her fists and shaking them ferociously. "We'll never leave you alone to face the enemy by yourself! All for one and one for all! Right!"

"Please!" Master begged raising her hands into the air like a prayer. "Please trust me!"

Gakupo took Master's hands in his own and gently lowered them. "No. What Gumi means to say is that we'll never leave you."

Gakupo let Master's hands go and they swung limply by her side; she looked lifeless.

"You made us who we are. Please trust US." Gakupo said firmly patting Master on the shoulders. "You can't do this alone."

Master looked into Gakupo's eyes and saw her face reflected in the pools of violet. She remembered when she was first making Gakupo out of wires and computer processors. She had just finished hooking up the optic center of the brain, which controlled his sight, when she had to stop.

"There is something about the eyes," She recalled telling Dr. Evil as she finished wielding a piece of metal in the back of Gakupo's head.

"Once you give a Vocaloid their eyes, even with nothing else; no skin, no brain; they really truly appear human for the first time."

"Hm," Dr. Evil remarked as he usually did while he overlooked work done on Vocaloids.

"One more thing," Master had stated proudly as Gakupo's eyes swiveled back and forth in his metal skull while Master controlled them with her keypad which was hooked into his brain.

"What's that doctor?"

"From this point on, he can see you." She said using her keypad to fix Gakupo's eyes right at Dr. Evil. He shuddered.

"Please don't do that." Dr. Evil said turning away from the half-formed android. "I don't see them as human until they have skin; the eyes only make them scarier for me! Please make him look away doctor!" Dr. Lucius Evil, a fully grown man begged the Master to have Gakupo look away. He felt his voice rise in pitch and he couldn't stop his heart from beating out of control.

"Frightening. Isn't it Evil?" Master said with a blank tone as she watched Dr. Evil cringe and shrink into the shadows of her own lab, like a poor sinner facing the horrors of hell.

"Yes, Kamui Gakupo can see us. But his mind is not yet developed enough to understand or comprehend—Heck, he probably won't even remember this.

"But in a way, this is even worse. Am I wrong?" Master made Gakupo's eyes look up at her, and she felt the familiar chill of eyes peering out of a metal-skull head.

"When he sees you, his opinions, his biases, his experiences—he has none of that. He sees you as you truly are, without anything blocking his vision, such as preferences, or society.

"And in return, you can see your own life; un-biasedly reflected in his eyes. Your true self, staring right back at you."

Master took a swallow of cool, damp air and looked down. She did this with every Vocaloid, starting with Meiko. She simply took a moment and looked into their eyes. Their cold, dead, curious eyes.

She thought that after all of this time she might have hardened herself.

She was wrong.

"HEY!"

Master spun instinctively in the direction of the sound. To her horror, twelve un-masked teenagers wearing black sweaters were filing into her house. It took her a moment to realize that they were the same people from before.

"We've got something to say!" One of the girls said boisterously while the others laughed manically.

Master felt the blood drain from her face, but she licked her dry lips and tried to make a snappy come back. "It better be that you or your parents can pay for this mess."

The showboating blonde at the front of the pack threw her long gold hair over her shoulders. "No, that's not it!"

Master didn't like the way everyone seemed to be laughing, as if in on a private joke that only she didn't know about.

"I don't know if I can accept an apology; but you can try."

"Nope, not it either." The blonde snickered turning to her friends.

"Then you better just shut up! Super freaks!" Gumi cried curling her fingers into fists.

"Shhh, Gumi." Gakupo warned her as the laughter died down. He wondered briefly if her should unsheathe his sword, and just fight to finish off all of the fans at once; but he decided against it, since he could probably fight them back into the black vans that they surely had parked out on the side walk.

Actually, most of the fans had disappeared, crawling out into the darkness; where, Gakupo knew they went either to get help, or crawl into the vans and hope to be driven home to their parents who will wonder how their children got concussions in the night.

"All… I…Want to say is…" The blonde said each word slowly, as if savoring the way they felt. The room was dead quiet and it seemed as though everyone was holding their breath.

Gakupo looked around briefly, and was shocked to see every eye was trained on him.

In a sudden burst of insight Gakupo leapt forward, determined to try and stop the blonde, but he was less than a second too late.

"Catatonically"

Gakupo collapsed to the ground suddenly. He stared wide-eyed across the floor in terror as he realized that he was paralyzed.

His breath caught in his throat as he saw an army of feet trample past him and two pairs of hands grab his ankles and elbows, but then his world turned black and he descended into a sleep too close to death for dreams.

"GAKUPO!" Gumi shrieked as almost ten people formed a wall surrounding her. One of them pushed her roughly and she picked her up and threw her across the room.

Master saw Gakupo fall to the ground and she became a tornado, whipping around, hitting people with her pipe and throwing junk she picked up off the floor.

Finally the last few people ran outside, just as Master heard the squealing of tires. Master stumbled over to the open door and watched one van peel out of the front of the house while people were still loading into two more.

One person ran out from the back of the house and shoved Master aside as she tried to jump into a van.

Master fell to the ground clutching her knees. Her secret worse fears had come true. All of them.

"Gakupo… Gakupo…" Gumi staggered over to the Master, calling out for Gakupo, though not daring to believe what she'd seen.

Master knew it. Gumi knew it. They both knew it. Just as they had been ambushed by a sea of strangers, many of them hiding out of sight; two people had grabbed him, unconscious and loaded him into a van; which was now lost in the night somewhere.

"That was probably the plan all along." Master realized as she picked herself up off her knees.

"Gakupo?" Gumi cried as tears began to spill over her cheeks.

"He's gone Gumi." Master said lifelessly.

Gumi wailed and Master noticed a pounding noise coming from inside the house.

"Come on Gumi, He needs you to pull yourself together!" Master yanked Gumi's elbow and Gumi reluctantly stood up.

"If you help me, we can get him back, but I'm going to need your help, no questions; alright?" Master shook Gumi reassuringly, holding her in a brief close hug.

Gumi nodded. "One question." She sighed as her short flow of tears came to an end. "Is he going to be okay."

Master didn't answer Gumi. She refused to answer Gumi. She didn't know.

Master flung open the door to the basement and Miku collapsed into the hallway.

"What happened to this place? Oh, it's a disaster!" Miku exclaimed as she examined the damage.

"Is everyone okay up there?" Neru Akita called up, not bothering to walk up the steps herself.

"No, it's Gakupo… I need to make a phone call." Master suddenly felt dizzy. She grabbed onto a swivel chair and saved herself from falling on the floor.

"Are you going to be okay?" Haku asked hovering over the chair.

"…m fine." Master gruffly replied as she dialed the number for Luka's phone on Hotaru's monitor.


	13. Chapter 13

He wrapped another Band-Aid around his long, shriveled finger. His aged, frail skin was so thin; it cut and bled with hardly any effort at all.

He sighed dismally as he flexed his hands and looked over the garden of brown flowers that sprouted from his knuckles; with withered stems and floppy, awkward blooms.

All ten had been wrapped in a Band-Aid because he had made all ten bleed.

He was old now. He hardly dared to believe in the number on his driver's license anymore. He was aged, and the biggest problem was, he didn't know when or how it had happened. One morning he had been on his way to school, kissing his mother goodbye; he could see the memory so clearly it might have just been before bed the night before, instead of years and years ago.

Now he sat combing the white hairs of his beard with his mummified hands. He knew that with age was supposed to come wisdom, but he never had the foresight to quite shake the one nervous tick that made his life unbearably hard.

He worked with his hands; day in and day out inventing, tinkering, fixing electronics. It was his passion. He could throw himself into a project for weeks, and never think a thing of it.

But working on delicate little pieces of metal or trying to thread strands of thin copper wire using his numb, awkward, and wrapped-up fingers was next to impossible.

He sneered at his wrinkled hands. He needed to be as nimble as a sprite; dancing over the equipment lightly and adroitly putting every piece into a place where he knew it would function to his satisfaction. He couldn't do that with these hands.

"Come now," He spoke to his reflection in the golden mirror that hung next to the service elevator. "You only need to type today, that's all. Type. You shouldn't be diving into anything electronic, or small."

"That's right." He imagined his mirror image saying. It's sharp, cat-like eyes peering out from beneath the shaggy mange of white, unkempt hair; darting around in the darkness of the room suspiciously. "But what if it's not as simple as it seemed? What if you have the whole concept wrong? And isn't typing a pain with your hands like that?"

"Take them off." His reflection dared, as it hissed out yet another hideous demand.

Amundsen was beyond fighting, or caring. He easily slipped of the first five Band-Aids and he rubbed his thumb over the other four fingers. They felt strange. Moist and swollen, as if they weren't really his but on loan from someone with a problem with perspiring palms.

"There now, isn't that better?" His reflection said as it finally sank back into imitating his dreamy, mesmerized expression.

Amundsen absentmindedly brought his hand back up to his mouth and rested his red, bloody fingers on his lip. He thought nothing of the mirror conversing with him; it was the natural product of being awake and under high-stress for so long.

Stranger things had spoken to him.

Amundsen winced as he felt a sharp pain proliferate his finger tip. He had unknowingly begun gnawing at it again.

Over the past week Amundsen had spent his time working and chewing away at his fingernails. He'd had the problem since he was a young boy, and he had thought he had it under control; but in situations of high stress the old habit would resurface.

He would spend hours gnawing, biting, and chewing and ripping and tearing at his fingertips on one hand and working diligently with the other.

Often times he would not notice the biting until the blood began soaking into the white sleeve of his lab coat. He was old, and he didn't have as much feeling in his hands and feet anymore; his blood was thin due to lack of platelets and his skin was weaker than the skin of a grape.

Consequently he had very few clean lab coats anymore. Even the one that he was wearing had a maroon blood stain up the sleeve until it hit the elbow where it mysteriously stopped. The old Doctor couldn't help it. Lab coats were expensive, and he didn't know how to wash blood out of cloth.

Dr. Amundsen didn't do much in the way of housekeeping at all anymore. He had used to, but age had caught up with him, and it exhausted him to attempt any kind of effort towards tidiness.

So his lab was a mess. With a coat of dust more than an inch thick, papers and books everywhere, and pools of dry blood on the floor from when he had been bleeding and not realized it; the lab was a disaster zone.

Amundsen looked around and grinned. "After I'm dead, they'll probably have to clean up this place with a hazmat team, or whoever those people are."

Only silence echoed in reply.

But Amundsen was use to the pressing silence and spirit-breaking loneliness. What he was not used to was the obligation to his body once he became old. He continued tearing at the stub that remained of a nail until he had to stop and spit out residue from the small river of blood that flowed down his hand.

"You do that because you're nervous. Did you know?" The mirror asked from across the room. Amundsen walked away from it and sat down in a plush swivel chair.

Yes he did know. He knew he was nervous. He knew that he SHOULD be nervous. This was the gut-churning moment-of-truth that would be the determining factor of whether or not the last twenty years or so was spent well, or wasted in vain.

In this gamble he risked not only his life, his job, his reputation and his wealth; but also several children's futures, his former friend and one innocent that happened to be caught in just the right place at just the wrong time.

"Not to mention…" Amundsen turned and looked fondly at a plain door, hidden in the shadows of the lab. It was peppered with green glow-in-the-dark stars and moons and Amundsen had personally painted rocket-ships, planets and meteors in gold paint.

"Yes, yes." The mirror said in agreement. Even with his back turned to it, Amundsen could still feel the condescending smirk he was receiving. "Yes, Yes."

"There is very much at stake tonight." Amundsen said, clasping his hands together on his lap as he crossed his legs and spun around to face the window.

"Very much." The mirror agreed in the same, unfeeling tone "Very, very much."

"God speed, my angels…" Amundsen murmured, though he wasn't quite sure of the reason. He certainly didn't think of the fans as angels; more like delinquents in desperate need of a guidance counselor to help them or guide them, or at least someone or something to cling to.

And he certainly didn't think of them as his.

"God speed…" The mirror's voice faded into the back of Amundsen's mind as the old man became insufferably weary. "Very…much…"

The mirror's voice morphed into his own and he found himself speaking the last phrase. He suddenly became weary, but unable to sleep he began to doze.

Amundsen gazed out of the large window which took up most of the southern wall of his lab and out into the yard. He had planted every tree himself when he was younger, and now every tree was crooked and gnarled with tangled moss hanging down like the gray shrouds of traveling mountain sages. His back yard had slowly been growing; from verdant paradise, to haunted forest and Amundsen hadn't noticed until tonight.

"Hm." He grunted as he rested his head on his arms. "I wonder what other surprises I'll find tonight?"


	14. Chapter 14

Luka unzipped the tent and tumbled out into the snow. Laughing she picked herself up and raced down the hill in her bare-feet. She had heard voices and she just knew it was Gakupo coming to get them and take them home.

She could barely see in the dim glow of the city lights, but it quickly became apparent that Gakupo was not coming.

"Holy—it's freezing!" Meiko complained pulling Kaito's overcoat tightly around her shoulders.

Luka tried to hide her disappointment as she signaled the two senior Vocaloids.

"Hey, glad you could come!" Luka said as cheerfully as she could. "Come on up the hill… we have a tent and a battery powered space heater."

Meiko jumped for joy "Awesome! Come out Kaito!"

Kaito was wearing only a thin black tee-shirt and followed Meiko closely while Luka trudged back uphill glumly. She had no idea what had become of Gakupo, and she needed to know that he was okay.

She knelt down and crawled into the tent, feeling euphoric as heat returned to her face and body.

"Luka onee-chan! Close the flap, you're letting the heat out!" Rin said snuggled up next to Len beneath a soft, fluffy blanket.

"Oh, sorry." Luka tried to hide her dismay, but it was hard. Where was Gakupo?

The tent was a tight squeeze for the nine Vocaloid nestled inside, plus the space heater. Everyone was laying piled up on top of one another like a litter of kittens.

Rin and Len were curled up together beneath one of the warm blankets right next to the space heater; Kiyoteru was asleep in the far corner with Yuki tucked up against his chest and right next to them was Teto and Ted who were lounged across the center of the tent taking up a lot of valuable space.

Kaito and Meiko gingerly stepped over them to reach the only free corner near the back of the tent.

Luka sat down right in front of the tent and grabbed a blanket from the pile. "Catch." She whispered tossing it to Kaito.

"Thanks!" He said catching the blanket with one hand and simultaneously covering Meiko with it.

"Ahh! I'm in heaven!" Meiko exclaimed quietly as the color began to return to her face.

"Where's Gakupo?" Luka startled herself by suddenly blurting out the question she'd been dreading asking.

Meiko and Kaito shared significant looks before answering sheepishly. "The house… probably."

"Is he alright?" Luka pressed eager for more information.

"He was a little banged up, but otherwise holding up well." Meiko replied nonchalantly.

"Why did you leave the house but not him?"

"Master told us to."

"How many of them—"

"Argh!" Meiko suddenly shouted waking up Kiyoteru and Ted, but not Yuki or Teto. "Would you stop it with the questions? We don't know! In all likelihood, He's going to be fine!"

She paused before adding "You two should be schmoozing again before noon tomorrow."

Luka was shocked "We don't schmooze!" she exclaimed quietly, while secretly fuming. What was so wrong about wanting to know about what had happened?

"What's a schmooze?" Len asked rolling out from under Rin's arm.

"I'll tell you when you're older." Kaito promised falsely.

"Look, I'm sorry I worry! I'm his girlfriend I'm entitled to know if he's okay!" Luka whispered furiously as Yuki stirred in her sleep.

"Well, we don't know!" Meiko whispered back fiercely. "When we left he was fine, but now we're here and I don't KNOW!"

Meiko covered her head with the blanket and flopped down on the hard ground. Kaito looked at Luka sadly and shrugged his shoulders.

Meiko had said it pretty much how it was. He didn't know anything that was going on in the house, and it ate away at him that he couldn't offer Luka some kind of reassurance that Gakupo was alright.

"He's strong." Kaito said finally as he lay down behind Meiko. "There weren't many of them still eager to fight when we left, and he has Master and Gumi fighting alongside him. I'm pretty sure that they're all going to be fine."

Kaito gently pulled the blanket down away from Meiko's head and lovingly caressed her cheeks with the back of his hand.

He could feel the sticky warmth of tear trails when he pulled his hand away.

"Poor Meiko." Kaito thought as he pulled her into a warm, tender embrace. "The questions must be killing her. I know that they are killing me."

Kaito combed his fingers through her brown hair, and Meiko tried to stifle a sob that turned into a sigh.

Kaito glanced over to Luka, who was lying near the tent flap facing the night.

Luka had been facing the tent flap all night. She was facing the bottom of the hill where someone would have to climb up in order to reach the tent.

She had pretended to be asleep before Kaito and Meiko came, but as soon as she heard their footsteps crunching in the snow she had bolted upright and raced down the hill; hoping to see Gakupo.

Now she tried to pretend to sleep once again, but Kaito knew that she wasn't going to be able to sleep all night. He knew that she was listening.

Luka stared at the shiny zipper of the tent, straining her ears to try and pick up the slightest of sounds.

She imagined that on a cold, still night like this one she could probably hear for miles.

"No, more than that" She thought "I could probably hear every corner of the city. Every house's humming air-conditioner, every person stumbling home from a bar; I could probably hear everything everywhere."

Luka imagined hearing Gakupo all the way from the house. He was too far away for her to tell what he was saying, but he was talking.

Luka imagined Gakupo's voice in color. She thought of what hue it would take and how it would look when he spoke or sang. His voice ended up being a light shade of purple, just a bit brighter than his hair. Perhaps his hair color when the sun reflected off the snow onto it.

It had a mellow feeling to it and when he spoke it looked like a string vibrating, but when he sang, Luka thought it would be like a smear of paint and would billow out until it covered a wall or a person, or a canvas…or…

Luka snapped herself out of the daydream violently and listened very, very closely. She could hear absolutely nothing except the quiet breathing of eight snoozing Vocaloids behind her.

She was a bit irritated; her daydream had been so nice that she wanted it to last longer. But she willed herself to stay focused and listen for Gakupo.

Luka closed her eyes. "What a sad strange love!" She thought to herself silently. "I told myself that I'd never be the girl who waits, forlorn and alone for her man by the door; but here I am."

Luka found that with her eyes closed she missed the gleam of the zipper, so she opened them again and continued staring.

"I just don't know who I am anymore." Luka thought lost in self-reflection. "I never wanted to be the pathetic heroine from all of those dime-store romances; sitting and waiting, totally dependent on someone else for happiness."

Luka started to roll over, then remembered she was listening for Gakupo and stayed facing the door uncomfortable and stiff.

"But…" She suddenly took pity on herself and argued in her own defense "It's not like that… Gakupo really does carry some of my happiness. I'm not dependent on him, I'm worried about him."

Luka didn't like the way that sentence finished so she added "And I love him. So there!"

"What do you love about him?" Luka suddenly and cruelly wondered.

"I don't know…" Luka answered instinctively. But the longer she thought about it the more material she could come up with.

"Well, first I Love the way he makes me feel. It's like raw electricity coursing through me, and I Love it! It's euphoric!" Luka kept count on her fingers as she came up with more reasons. "I Love his smile, the way he grins when he sees me! It's just so purely happy, and he doesn't even know he does it! I Love that!

I Love the way he listens to me, it's like he's the missing part of my brain that's meant to help me solve problems! Like he completes me somehow…

I Love when he's tender, when he shows his feeling to me. Like when he told me about the attack; I was so flattered that he chose to tell me! And when he holds me; nothing else just holds me, I feel as though he really cares, and I'm safe in his arms.

I Love his body. Every part of him from his hair to his toes was manufactured for the public, but he is so at home in his body I never notice. He really is like a Greek statue come to life; so beautiful, so natural. And when he….

Luka was suddenly jarred out of her deep thought by her phone ringing! She sat straight up and tried to fish the new I phone out of the hidden pocket in her black skirt.

"We're born and die in the moon's darkness

With the people who bring hate to the world

There's no mercy even if you weep

People who did wrong still must atone..."

It was Master's ring tone, 'Dawn of the red sea'. Luka hesitated before answering it and her breath caught in her throat. Gakupo must still be at the house, and Master is calling her so maybe she will get to talk to Gakupo and she will FINALLY be able to ask if he's alright and get some answers.

Luka kicked the twins quickly who cried out and woke up everyone in the tent.

"It's Master, wake up!" Luka cried loudly as she prepared to hit the answer button.

"Many souls desire to return to their home

They don't seem to fear what's in tomorrow...

Those who still live, what do they mean?

I think I know from what you always told me"

The ring tone faded out and Master's voice faded in.

"…Hello?"

"Hello, Master! Is everything alright?" Luka chattered excitedly.

Master's words caught in her throat. She knew she had to tell Luka, but she couldn't make words come out.

"Buh," She stammered, trying to hold back tears of frustration.

"What?" Luka asked. Her spirits sinking "Hold on, I'll put you on speaker phone."

"I, uh…guh." Master took in a deep breath and let two tears trickle down her face before calmly saying what she was thinking.

"Gone… He's gone Luka. They got him. Right out from under us." Master said as her head dropped into her hands.

Everyone in the tent had gathered around the phone with the exception of Yuki, and everyone sank back to the floor in shock.

Except Luka. She sat up on her knees and tried to breath. It was as though something was squeezing her heart and making it impossible for air to flow in and out. Luka's happy expression morphed into one of numb shock.

Master began to laugh. She laughed maniacally while a few tears made their way down her face to her collar. Then the laughter descended into heavy breathing.

"I…" Master's voice was choked with emotion. "This is my fault." She said finally.

Luka listened petrified.

"I know… how you two… are. If you want to come with me…me and Gumi, I'll explain everything. And we'll get him back. But only you two. Is that clear?"

Luka waited for her voice to work. She couldn't breathe. It didn't seem real.

Suddenly it seemed too real. She was choking on it. She couldn't breathe, but she manager to croak: "I'll be home in a bit."

Luka collapsed into a pile of blankets and tried to send air into her reluctant lungs. She gasped like a fish out of water.

Meiko crawled over to her and picked her up by the shoulders. "Breathe, come on. Breathe honey." Luka didn't know if she remembered how. She tried but it felt as though something was tied around her heart, squeezing the life out of her.

Kaito picked up the phone that Luka had neglected to hang up. "Master," He warned "This isn't funny. If Gakupo's there put him on now."

"I'm sorry." Master said feeling pathetic.

Kaito felt the blood drain from his face. Meiko was right, they shouldn't have left when they did.

"…Oh my god." Rin said grabbing onto Len's shirt tightly.

Luka started to breathe normally; shallowly but normally. Her mind was spinning.

How could this have been the Master's fault? Where was Gakupo?

Luka saw images of Gakupo whizzing in her mind like flashbulbs of memory.

Flash, Gakupo waking up beside her in the morning. Flash, Gakupo kissing her after the first snowfall. Flash, watching a scary movie and feeling safe in his arms. Flash, one passionate night.

Luka stood up and wordlessly unzipped the tent. She was going home.

She stumbled in the snow and tripped over her own feet going downhill. She landed hard in a soft blanket of fluffy whiteness.

"Whoa, where do you think you're going?" Kaito called out following her as she haphazardly tumbled into the street.

Luka didn't know what made her answer him so brashly, but she flipped her head up and furiously barked "To Gakupo!"

Meiko jumped out of the tent and in a flash she had run downhill and scooped Luka into a bear hug that Luka fought.

"Let go!" Luka cried as she leaned over in a forced bow.

"Nuh-uh." Meiko replied as she motioned for Kaito to come over and help her. "We're walking you home."

Kaito held one of Luka's arms as Meiko tried to hold her up around the waist but Luka squirmed and tripped as she tried to force her way out of their grips.

"Quit your goddamn fighting, already!" Meiko finally shouted letting Luka fall to the cold, frozen ground. "Don't you get it? We're only trying to help you!"

Luka looked to the ground sadly as she allowed Meiko to help her up. Kaito locked elbows with Luka and they awkwardly accosted her back into the glow of the neon city. She had hurt her arm when she had fallen, but she only vaguely had sense of the pain.

It was as though she was of a different consciousness. She saw and felt everything that was happening to her body, but she couldn't or wouldn't feel or care.

Kaito looked into the maze of bright glowing neon beams that became visible when they entered the city and he thought of Gakupo.

The neon roads reminded him of all of the time he had spent with Gakupo working together. It was as if as soon as he was created he was meant to work with Kaito.

Kaito thought of him as a friend, one of the only friends his age in the Vocaloid family and one of the only people he could count on for conversation. It still hadn't hit him that he was gone, though Kaito had some sense of the importance of getting him back.

"Don't worry." Kaito said to Luka, but mostly to reassure himself. "Master wouldn't let him go for good. So long as he's on earth, we'll find him."

Luka heard him, but didn't respond.


	15. Chapter 15

**Finally! A climax is coming. I thought it never would. If you read, reveiw please. I love to hear your lovely voices.**

* * *

Gakupo had a curious dream. He was standing in the middle of the gold and rosy pink living room from the Nutcracker ballet.

He walked around and saw some strange things around the room. A digital clock with glowing green numbers which read 11:14, a stuffed cat and a little blue teapot sat alone on an enormous banquet table laid out with a white table cloth.

Gakupo didn't know what seized him, but he climbed up onto the table and when he looked up, there was Luka wearing her yellow sundress with daisies in her hair looking like the picture of spring.

She smiled sweetly at him and opened her mouth, as though she was going to say something, but instead a song sprang out like a fountain:

"I drew an arc, the gaze inside the world

The clouds carry the sounds, I count the flowing songs

Seeing off a falling star, I understood the reason I'm here, Stargazer!"

Gakupo looked down and saw that he was wearing his 'Duke of Venomania' costume. "Weird!" He thought laughing. "I must be dreaming!"

Gakupo looked up again at Luka and cleared his throat:

"What are you doing now? What do you want to do? I am here

I will send this message: "I love you""

He sang a few lines from the song 'Voice' and Luka broke out laughing. She covered her mouth with her hands and her laughter sounded like bells.

Gakupo felt himself blushing, and then Luka began to spin at the end of the table. Just like how she would spin while singing 'Double Lariat'.

Gakupo sang a few lines from Double Lariat:

An 85 cm radius is as far as my hands can reach

When I someday grow tired of spinning, please stay by me!"

But his voice sounded like Luka's, not that he minded. It was turning out to be a fun dream.

Then as suddenly as it had started, it ended and Gakupo was brought back into a dark and noisy reality when his head bumped against the back of a car seat.

"Damn it Miziki, you're going to end up killing all of us!"

"Well I'm sorry; there was something in the road!"

"You wouldn't have to slam on the breaks if you drove the damn speed limit!"

Gakupo tried to open his eyes, but every part of his body felt heavy. He managed to open them part of the way and he found himself in the back of a van, where the seats had been removed.

He was slouched against the driver's seat, and all around him were girls in black, most with long hair; sitting cross-legged and whispering amongst themselves.

Gakupo's heart sank as he realized he was in the belly of the beast. He had been essentially kidnapped.

"Crap, what now?" He wondered as he tried to analyze his surroundings.

He knew that he was outside of the town because the van passed a street lamp which blinded him in a bath of orange light.

Suddenly one of the girls jumped up and crawled over to him. "Omigawd guys, I think he's awake!"

Gakupo quickly shut his eyes and started breathing very slowly as every other girl started twittering like birds, "Omigawd, Omigawd, Omigawd!"

Gakupo could feel their eyes pressing into his face as they stared at him waiting for movement. When he didn't move he heard the familiar sound of a punch.

"You idiot, false alarm!"

"I was sure I saw his eyes open…" the one girl replied weakly.

"Trick of the light" the other girl said bitterly.

Gakupo checked to see if he could fight his way through the girls and somehow jump out of the moving van, but he quickly nixed the idea when he tried to lift his hand and saw that it would only raise an inch or two at most.

"Miziki, how fast are we going?" Someone asked suddenly. "Those street lights are moving by awful fast."

"Hm, about eighty-five if this needle is right."

"What!" several girls exclaimed suddenly grabbing onto the sides of the van.

"Miziki! Miziki!" One girl said in a strained voice. "What if the cops pulled us over? Huh? We're stealing a Vocaloid! That's grand theft AND kidnapping! Slow the heck down! Please!"

"I don't want to go to jail!" One of the girls started to cry as Miziki slowed down gradually.

"To late now." Miziki said from the driver's seat. "If we go down, we all go down together, right?"

"I just wanted one night with Gakupo…" the girl sobbed pathetically and Gakupo felt a chill run down his spine.

"Well, now look at it this way. If we get away you can have a couple of months with him." Miziki said.

"I don't know how this is going to work exactly." Another girl chimed in. "We haven't really given thought to how we're going to divvy him amongst ourselves, or how we're going to keep him…"

"The doctor said that he'd take care of it." One of the girls reminded her.

"He said that Gakupo would stay at his house, and when could see him whenever we wanted and that he'd fix his brain so that he'd love us!"

Gakupo hoped that no one noticed the blood draining from his face as he realized exactly how serious his situation was.

"I don't know if I want his brain to be tampered with." One of the girls said. "I mean, I like him just the way he is."

Gakupo felt like sighing with relief, but he stayed perfectly still.

"So, you mean we'd make it like 'the bachelor' and try to make him fall in love with us? Like a contest?"

"Yeah, sure."

Gakupo relaxed a little as he realized he would have no choice but to figure out where they were taking him, at least while he pretended to sleep he wouldn't be bothered.

But Gakupo couldn't help but shudder slightly; just enough that no one noticed. He wondered where he was going, why his body wouldn't work and who the doctor was, but he dreaded finding out.

One of the girls crawled over to Gakupo and whispered in his ear: "Don't worry, if you love me we'll run away together and leave this whole nasty business behind!"

"Tohru! Quit trying to influence his opinion sub-consciously!" someone shouted from across the van and Gakupo listened as Tohru crawled off.

Gakupo sent a silent prayer off into the universe: "Help!"


	16. Chapter 16

"I'll need your help." Master nodded to Gumi as she searched her messy Lab for some kind of weapon.

"I'll do whatever it takes to bring Gakupo home!" Gumi shouted making Neru jump.

Master shifted aside some boxes until she found exactly what she was looking for. It was shaped vaguely like a cube with several compartments filled with small Tasers. When you pushed the remote activated trigger, the Tasers would spring out of their compartment and Taser a whole group of people, so long as they were within radius. It was called the Taser Shock wave, and it was one impulse buy that was finally about to come in handy.

Master figured that this would be better than trying to fight the whole group of fan girls.

Master picked the shock wave up and sighed. "This would be a funny situation if it wasn't so damn serious."

Miku opened the door at the top of the basement stairs and light poured onto Master and the Shockwave. Master shielded her eyes as Miku started downstairs with Luka close behind.

"Luka's here." She said pushing one of her pigtails behind her shoulder.

Good. Master said as her eyes adjusted to the light. Master pulled a Taser out of the drawer next to her.

"Luka, take—" but before she could finish her sentence Luka had punched her hard in the mouth.

"Luka!" Kaito cried as he rushed over to Master's side, but Master waved him away.

She turned and looked Luka in the eyes for a moment, and was once again reminded of Luka's construction.

It was how she stayed clean, how she made it impossible for herself to lie, or be unfaithful to any Vocaloid. By looking them in the eyes before they have minds. By bearing her soul to them from the very beginning.

They shared a brief, meaningful glance.

Master held out the Taser to Luka. "Here, you might need this. Just in case."

Luka silently took it.

Gumi shrugged her shoulders and dug up her own Taser from a drawer.

Master turned to Hotaru. "Show them." She demanded and pictures and maps popped up on screen.

"This is where Gakupo is." She said curtly, "And if I'm not mistaken, THIS" she pointed to a large room on the first floor "Is where he'll be when we get there."

"I've already disabled the security cameras, they are now playing on a loop, but they won't stay that way for long. We need to get there NOW."

Gumi nodded and headed upstairs and Luka quietly followed her. Master grabbed a map and said a prayer before following them to the garage.

"Hey, would you guys clean up before we get back?" She called downstairs before closing the basement door. She heard Neru grumble and she slammed the door shut.

"Which car are we taking?" Gumi asked when Master got inside the garage.

"The blue one."

"But you never use the blue one?"

Master grinned "And today, you'll find out why."

Luka climbed in the front seat while Gumi clambered in the back and Master moved silently into the driver's seat.

Master opened the garage door and flipped on the engine and before the door had opened all the way, Master floored the gas and the car speed like a rocket down the drive way and into the street.

"Whoa!" Gumi cried as she reached over and grabbed the door for support.

"This is one of three cars ever made with a jet engine." Master explained as she speed down the street and onto the main highway. "Once it reaches speeds excess of one-hundred and twenty miles per hour it morphs slightly in order to go even faster, the only problem is, we can't turn corners until we get back down under one hundred-twenty."

Luka heard a siren and saw flashing lights in the side mirror. "Oh no, the police!"

"Always appearing at just the wrong time…" Master muttered as she shifted gears on the car. Suddenly Luka felt lower to the ground and her mirror was gone.

Luka opened her mouth to ask what was happening, but then her eyes fell on the little red needle of the speedometer.

120mph

Suddenly Luka was pushed back into her seat by the force of the car's speed. The sirens disappeared and Luka could only hear air rushing by the car.

"Now this is living!" Gumi cried from the back seat.


	17. Chapter 17

"Where are you?" Amundsen demanded furiously.

"We had to drop off the injured at home. They really did a number on us…"

"I don't care, it has to be tonight! You must get him to me immediately!" Amundsen barked at the girl and threw his phone to the ground.

The glass screen shattered and Amundsen sank to his knees. The phone had been expensive and he cursed his quick temper.

Amundsen looked at the clock sighed. It was only a habit to look at the clock; the hands had stopped moving a long time ago. He'd never changed the battery.

"I wonder if it would be wiser to move and go somewhere else, if only for tonight?" The mirror suggested. "After all, if she finds you here with him, it's all over. Am I wrong?"

Amundsen dropped the shards of glass into his overflowing trashcan. "No, you're right. But all of my equipment is here. I couldn't do it without my equipment."

"Who says it has to be done tonight?" The mirror hissed. "If you can hold onto him, and keep him, then you could do it whenever you want. At your leisure."

"Just hide the boy it a hotel or somewhere!" It urged "Then she'll break into you're lab, find nothing and be forced to leave us alone!"

"It's not so simple." Amundsen murmured biting at the stub of his nail. "She would never leave me alone while he's still missing. No doubt she is already on her way here… I should've made some measures to delay her even more…!"

"And besides…" Amundsen looked at the door with the glowing stars and the seductively gleaming handle.

"If she finds THAT here, she'll condemn me as a heretic. And I'll be doomed."

He paused before adding, "WE'D be doomed."


	18. Chapter 18

**I love Amundsen, even though he's the villan. I spent a lot of time and thought into creating him. He's like my son, in a way.**

* * *

**G**akupo felt the car slow to a stop. He heard Miziki in the front unbuckle her seat belt and he realized that they must have arrived at the doctor's place.

He felt his stomach lurch as someone grabbed onto his ankles and someone lifted him up by tucking her arms under his elbows.

"Lord—he's heavy!" someone strained by his ankles.

"What did you expect?" The person by his head asked. "He's made of metal; He's a human sized computer!"

"Urgh, don't say things like that!" Someone else said as Gakupo felt himself moving forward.

"Why not?"

"It kills the dream."

Gakupo still pretended to be asleep as the girls jumped off the back of the van, jarring him roughly and dropping one of his ankles.

"Whoops, sorry!" the girl with his feet said insincerely.

"Hm," said one sharp girl. "I wonder why he hasn't woken up yet?"

Gakupo listened in horror as everyone became silent. To his surprise a boy spoke up: "Let's ask the doctor."

Gakupo felt the temperature rise as he was brought inside. He tried to remember all of the twists and turns they took in the house, so that if he got the chance he could find his way out, but the fans got lost a few times themselves.

When they came to a stop they lifted him onto a couch and Gakupo really had no clue where he was.

There was a collective murmur of appreciation.

"Omigawd, he's so beautiful." Followed by chatter in agreement.

"I can't believe we did it!" Said Miziki and every girl hooted excitedly.

The one boy from before said sheepishly "I wonder if Luka's going to come looking for him…" and all of the girls clicked their tongues in annoyance.

"So THAT'S why you joined us!" One of them hissed scandalized "You just wanted to use Gakupo as bait to lure Luka here, oh, you smooth criminal!"

The boy chuckled and Gakupo felt hate pouring out from inside of him. "You've got me Sherlock, I love Luka. Gakupo can go to hell…"

"Oh wait," the boy added "He's already there."

Gakupo felt the burning urge to hit the boy, but his arms felt as though they were tied down with fifty pound weights. He decided he would settle for at least seeing the face of the cheeky jerk, but his eyes lids were just as heavy as his arms. And keeping them closed seemed so good…

"Look, Omigawd! Look! His eyes are opening!" All of the girls crowded around to see Gakupo's long, beautiful eyelashes flutter open.

"Stand aside, stand aside!" Amundsen came trudging through his living room pushing fan girls and trying to make a path to Gakupo.

"He can still hear you and I don't want you to mess up his emotions anymore!"

Gakupo's eyes opened and they fell upon Doctor Amundsen. The Doctor had a long white beard with mysteriously black eyes that had a twinkle when he looked down. Gakupo thought he looked a bit like a skinny, somber Santa Clause.

Gakupo looked at the doctor for a moment, and then he scanned the crowd of girls in search of the rude boy. He found him standing near an oak coffee table grinning. Just grinning.

Gakupo tried to force himself to roll over and it took tremendous effort, but just as he pulled himself over, the frail looking old man scooped him into his arms like a child, using strength Gakupo didn't know he had.

"You have my word that he will return to you largely in one piece, if you LEAVE ME ALONE AND LET ME WORK TONIGHT!" Amundsen shouted with a powerful voice and all of the fans backed away from him and let him pass into his lab.

Amundsen walked into his lab and kicked something aside, stubbing his toe. He bit his lip and continued carrying Gakupo with a slight limp. No doubt his toe was bleeding. Everything bleeds when you get a bit older.

Gakupo watched the old man struggle with his pain and he felt a ripple of fear surge through him.

Amundsen gently placed Gakupo into a large, dark blue, plush chair when Gakupo realized he had found the strength to speak.

"Who…" he tried to say, but the words faded into a raspy whisper.

"Ah, I…" Amundsen placed Gakupo's hands securely on the arms of the chair and took a step back to look at the android. In the throne-like chair he looked like the Samurai lord, or some ancient feudal king, or something, Amundsen thought.

"I am Doctor Lazarus Amundsen. Of the Lazam Corporation, we build security cameras and what not."

Gakupo knew the Lazam Corporation built security cameras; that was not what he wanted to know.

Amundsen reached behind Gakupo and stuck two cords into the back of his neck. Gakupo felt a tingle as a connection was made between him and Amundsen's computer.

Amundsen took his swivel chair and sat directly across from Gakupo. He covered his eyes with his hands and Gakupo thought he had never seen a man more hopeless.

"I'm so sorry." Amundsen said finally. "I don't know what I was thinking, but one day the pain was just too great… I hate those petty people out there, but I foolishly promised you to them."

Amundsen looked out the great window behind Gakupo and into his now frightening back yard. "Let's you and I make a deal… You try to forget any of this ever happened, and I'll show you the back way out of here. You'll never have to see any of those creatures again."

Gakupo didn't know what to think… this was the criminal mind behind the week of stalker hell that his family had faced, but he was a regretful old man who didn't seem to have control over anything that was happening to him.

"One thing." Gakupo asked with all the strength he could muster. "Why…"

Amundsen stared at Gakupo, and Gakupo unwaveringly stared back. Finally Amundsen licked his lips and said: "It's complicated."

The computer screen sang out a high note that was a signal to tell Amundsen that he had access to all of Gakupo's files. He would worry about removing his 'Juniper' virus later; right now he had to find what he was looking for fast.

Gakupo watched him type away at the keyboard and wondered what it was inside of him that Amu Amundsen wanted.

"What…?"

Amundsen was too focused to stop typing, but he managed a cryptic little reply. "What indeed…"


	19. Chapter 19

"What indeed… what indeed…." Amundsen chanted to himself as though he were caught in a magic spell. He couldn't help it; Gakupo's programing was too fascinating.

He found all of the little quirks that Master put into the programming and he recognized them from all of the projects they had done in school. It seemed like forever ago, but she still had all of her little typing habits.

Gakupo had a growing sense of unease building up within him. He tried to focus on speaking since it took up all of his effort, but he had a worm of fear gnawing away at the back of his mind.

"What…are…you looking…for?" Gakupo managed to say with difficulty, forcing himself to speak.

"What." Amundsen said curtly as he lost his place for one moment. He struggled to remember where he had been and he scanned the page looking for where he left off.

When he found it he continued reading and sighed the rest of his response to Gakupo "…indeeeeeeed."

Gakupo was annoyed that he couldn't get more of a response from Amundsen, but he was even more frustrated by how helpless he felt. He could barely speak, how in the world was he going to get out of there?

Gakupo clenched his teeth. He knew that he would have to rely on the doctor's goodwill. He would have to trust that the doctor wouldn't go back on his promise to show him the way out.

Gakupo scanned the dark room. He knew that Amundsen's goodwill would depend on whether or not he found what he was searching for in Gakupo's data. Just in case, Gakupo wanted to see if he could find another route out of the lab.

The floor was dark blue tile, with strange puddles of something everywhere. The lab was a wreck filled with papers and books coated in various layers of dust. By the glow of the screen light Gakupo could actually see the trails made when Amundsen ran his fingers through the dust.

Gakupo watched Amundsen's face as he scanned over the programming on the computer. He looked like a man possessed and speaking in tongues. His eyes were darting around, but totally vacant as they absorbed the words on screen and he murmured the things he read below his breath.

Gakupo had heard of people who had tried to steal the secrets of the high-tech Vocaloid programming for the government or their own private company, but this was, by far the first time Gakupo had heard of someone stealing a Vocaloid to do it.

"Why…are you…you doing…this?" Gakupo formed the words carefully before trying to speak, but even so, they still sounded strange.

Amundsen broke away from his chanting for a brief moment and interrupted himself, "My girl." he said before continuing muttering the programming on screen. He surprised himself by answering. He hadn't wanted to, it had only slipped out.

Gakupo continued to look around the room. His eyes settled on the door on the far side. It had glow-in-the-dark stars posted all over it and it looked like a children's-bedroom door.

Gakupo wondered if that was the way out of the house when Amundsen gave a slight gasp of surprise. He stopped chanting and ran past Gakupo to a computer on the other side of the room.

Gakupo watched as the dark screen lit up with images from the inside of the house. He figured that the computer was connected to the security system and Amundsen could see the whole house without ever leaving his lab.

Amundsen flipped through images from different parts of the house when a high, sharp alarm made him cut to an image of his own front door.

Gumi, Luka and Master strolled into the house casually from the dark street where they had parked; Master carrying the shockwave like a briefcase and Luka talking anxiously to Gumi over her shoulder.

Amundsen gasped as Gumi and Luka walked out of frame, but Master, as if sensing their eyes upon her turned and looked up at the camera.

Master and Amundsen exchanged glances, but Master had no way of knowing she was being watched so after a moment she jogged down the hallway and off camera.

"My God!" Amundsen cried as he brought his hand up to his face. "My God!" He shouted again as he tenderly stroked the scar which ran down his cheek and into his beard.

"Luka…" Gakupo was overjoyed that someone had come to rescue him, but shocked that it was Luka. He had no way of warning her about the boy, and he knew that if she was overpowered she would be in huge trouble.

"She could end up like me… or worse!" Gakupo thought panicked as Amundsen through open the door to the living room.

"Three people are on the way down the eastern hallway! If any of them reaches this room THE DEAL IS OFF!" Amundsen screamed at the group of fans before slamming the door and starting to turn a neat row of locks that were spaced evenly all down the length of the door.

"Click, snap, shink, rattle, bam, clunk, clank, click." Amundsen locked the doorknob, the double bolt, and several other locks that he'd installed just a short time ago when he realized he needed his lab to become his shelter.

For Gakupo every little click of the locks was a weight on his heart. If Luka couldn't escape from the fans…"

For one single instant Gakupo saw the blond haired boy grinning wickedly at the end of the coffee table and another charge of fear struck him. He didn't want Luka anywhere near that boy.

"Luka…" As much as Gakupo wanted to get away from that house and those fans, he wanted Luka there even less.

Amundsen turned back to the screen and was searching Gakupo's programming at maximum speed. His eyes hurt from racing around as fast as they could swivel, but he kept reading.

Somewhere there was a code, or a string of codes that was what he was looking for. He knew it!

Suddenly Gakupo's programming stopped and Amundsen sat dumbly for a moment or two trying to figure out what had happened. There was nothing else to read and he still hadn't found what he was looking for.

He blinked and his mouth dropped open in shock. "Huh?" He exclaimed in dumb surprise.


	20. Chapter 20

"This doesn't feel good." Luka said peeking around a corner in one of the cream colored hallways that made up Amundsen's house.

"I know. It's okay." Master assured her as they scurried around the corner and down the hallway like a row of ninjas. "If I know Amundsen, he's still here and so is Gakupo."

"That's not what feels wrong." Luka continued. "What feels wrong in sneaking around like this."

"Trust me when I say that he's watching us; that's not why we're sneaking around." Master said. "We need a few seconds to start up the shock wave, and we can't afford to have the fans hear us when we're sneaking up on them."

"What if they went home?" Gumi asked as she bumped into Master who came to a sudden halt in one hallway.

At the end of the hallway was a blond haired boy in his late teens leaning lazily against a large painting of red flowers in a vase. He smoothly put his fingers to his lips in a gesture of silence and motioned towards the door behind himself.

Luka listened closely and she suddenly heard the roar of chatter from the girls on the other side.

The boy pointed to another door that was closer to the trio and waved his hands as if to say "Follow me."

Luka and Gumi shared brief worried glances but Master boldly followed the boy through the door and into the darkened room and they decided to trail after her.

The boy flicked on a light switch that lit up one fluorescent bulb that swung from a wire above Master's head.

"Who the hell are you?" Master whispered with hostility while keeping herself in between the kid and the girls.

"Oh, you might not remember me, you kind of hit me in the head with… what was that anyway; a golf club?" The boy said tapping his finger to a bump raising on his forehead and leaning up against the back of a chair.

"A pipe." Master shot back curtly. "And what the hell were you thinking young man? Breaking into a house and attacking—" Master began to shout.

"Shhhhh! Hushhhh!" The boy urged suddenly standing and leaning towards the door. He listened for a moment in silence before whispering "Could you please? I don't think I have to tell you we're outnumbered if they find us."

"WE!" Luka hissed under her breath "What's this WE! It's because of you—"

"I know, I know!" The boy snapped "I know you must hate me, and that's okay, but for right now I'm on your side."

"Ha!" Gumi snorted. "Let's taze him!"

The boy crossed his arms defensively. "Fine, go ahead! If you hurt me I won't help you anymore!"

Master was watching the boy wearily, trying to find any kind of deceit.

The Gumi stepped forward and the boy stepped back. "You can go ahead and taze me," He said again, his voice quivering "But you can't taze some of the girls in there… three of them have heart problems!"

Master looked down at the shockwave in disgust and swore under her breath. She had completely forgotten to think about what would happen if someone had heart problems, she was so mad she hardly thought of anything.

The boy relaxed a little. "There story is all the same: they missed a lot of school due to being sick, and their classmates didn't talk to them much, so they turned to Vocaloid to find the little bit of social interaction they needed to stay sane.

"The fact is, you probably can't get into the lab from that direction; it would be too hard and too many people will get hurt."

"So what do you suggest?" Luka said with a rumble of anger in her tone.

The boy smiled. "I can show you another way into the lab, if you'll follow me."

Master stared at the kid. She could see that he was sincere in every aspect, but she didn't even feel like humoring him.

"No thanks, we have a map." She said waving the rolled up map she had printed out before she left.

The boy's smile dropped suddenly and he looked to the floor hopelessly and Master felt a twinge of guilt.

"If you do want to help us, you might be able to do us a tiny favor."

The teen looked up to her with hope sparkling in his eyes. "What?" He asked excitedly.

"Well probably need a clear path out of the house. Can you delay the girls, or, even better get them to go home?"

The boy grinned and Luka saw that he had large metal braces that hung over pearly white, crooked teeth.

"No problem! I'll have the front clear for you in no time!"

"We need it in fifteen minutes."

"Still no problem!" The boy bounced out of the room and down the hall until he reached all of the other fans when he pretended to be very calm, even though he was exploding with joy inwardly.

Luka Gumi and Master snuck back down the way they came until they found another room with an open door. Master searched the room hastily and tossed the useless shockwave onto the bed while making a beeline for the window.

Master tried to pull the window open with all of her strength, but it was screwed into the wall.

"Give me a second." Luka demanded as she quickly stripped off one of the pillow cases and wrapped it protectively around her hand like a boxing glove. In a flash she pulled back her fist with a quiet shriek she punched the glass out of the frame.

Gumi and Master stared at her in disbelief as she finished knocking out the glass with her wrapped up hand and the shards fell into the yard below with a light chime.

"Good thinking." Master said patting Luka's back as she flexed her bruised fingers tossing the pillowcase covered in glass to the floor.

Master climbed out the window and landed on the wet grass and the broken glass with a loud crunch. She helped Gumi out the window next, but when she offered Luka her hand she refused it and slid off the window panel onto the yard silently.

Master checked the map in the darkness illuminated only by stars. If she was right, then Gakupo was on the other side of the house, if she was wrong then they could all be wandering into a trap.


	21. Chapter 21

Amundsen scrolled all the way to the top of the page to start reading from the beginning. He didn't know if he had the time to spare, but he knew that he had missed something, and the programming required greater scrutiny.

Gakupo slowly turned his head to look around. The effort it took to move was enormous, but he knew that if he was going to escape somehow, he would need to do it at least somewhat under his own power.

Or, what little power he had left.

Gakupo managed to look over his shoulder and he noticed a large window that showed Gakupo a scary, overgrown backyard with a dark, murky pond and eerie moss covered trees.

He would have turned his head back to watch the doctor scanning his programming, but something odd caught his eye. Gakupo looked closer at the window, and he noticed that it was not all made of the same glass. There was a rectangle of glass which reflected the light from the doctor's computer around its edges. Gakupo even saw a long, ornate door handle, like the ones used in stores.

"THAT must be the back way out of here! Gakupo realized as he allowed his head to swing limply forward and let his chin rest on his chest. He no longer wanted to move, it was too much effort. He almost wanted to doze off, but the image of Luka looking nervously over her shoulder kept him alert and awake.

Gakupo tried to breathe deeply and calmly. He tried to clear his mind of everything but Luka. He knew that she would be the driving force for his escape. He knew that she would be the sole source of power, if he could only focus on her.

"So, are you a consummate couple?" Amundsen asked suddenly startling Gakupo.

"What?"

"Are you a couple? You and the uh… the pink one." He asked grasping at the air as if trying to catch his thoughts like flittering moths.

"Luka?"

"That's it!"

"…Yes." Gakupo answered hesitantly.

"Mm," Amundsen responded passionately. "It's good to be in love. Enjoy it."

Gakupo said nothing. What could he say? He tried to clear his mind again and he decided to focus on the night on the hill with Luka.

It had been so cold, but his body had felt so hot. She was wearing a coarse nightgown, but she had felt so smooth. The night had been dark, but the lights shone so brightly. He remembered watching the colors dance off her pale face and thinking of Leia, woman of lies.

She was a work of art, the statue of a goddess, but she was so simple and earthy and real. It made his heart ache.

Gakupo closed his eyes and opened them again. It felt as though he had a little more control over his body than before.

Amundsen sighed. "…hurts."

Gakupo listened curiously, full of wonder.

"Being in love hurts sometimes. Enjoy it." Amundsen remarked cryptically.

Gakupo wondered if Amundsen was trying to make a point based on a life experience, or if he was just a little bit crazy.

Truthfully, at the moment he was both. He was finished analyzing Gakupo's programing for the last time, and he now knew the samurai so well that if he tossed a ball at him, he could tell what hand Gakupo would catch it with.

But he still couldn't find what he was searching for.

Amundsen felt his chest quiver and he briefly wondered if he was going to start laughing, or crying. He waited but nothing came except a small grin.

He was sitting in his lab, looking at a multi-million dollar robot that he had stolen, with its owner coming to take it back by force. He was sixty-four years old with a simple dream, which now he knew might never come true.

And it was all because he couldn't find the programming.

Amundsen was no fool. He knew that the end of life was approaching. "This little stunt," He warned himself "counts as your mid-life crisis. Nothing else."

"This little stunt." Amundsen grimaced. How in the world had it gotten this far? This wasn't like him at all.

In fact it seemed more like the script from a bad suspense novel than reality. How had Amundsen come to play the desperate villain?

It had all happened so fast. One moment it was just a passing thought, with no more worth than a daydream. Now he was sitting here across from Gakupo while Master crept through the halls of his house, plotting his demise.

Amundsen scrolled back up the page on Gakupo's programming until he found the motor and motion chunk of programming. He highlighted four lines that had been squeezed in between lines for movement and he deleted them.

"What…did you…do?" Gakupo stuttered horrified. He watched as the blue letters disappeared from his body forever and his breath caught in his chest. "A piece of him had just disappeared!" He realized.

"I've deleted my virus." Amundsen said opening a search engine. "I call it 'Juniper' fondly. Its effects are remarkable, better than I had hoped; but as soon as I synch you to my computer, you should be free to move about.

"As a show of courtesy, would you please refrain from killing me when you can move? I would really appreciate it."

Gakupo was astonished. He realized that Amundsen would really let him leave, no strings attached.

"Just one thing." Amundsen added. "When you see your Master, tell her to leave me alone."

Amundsen picked up a small child's toy off the floor and held it out away from his body studying it. It was a female frog with yellow yarn hair and pink lipstick. Amundsen thought it was positively grotesque.

"Tonight has been full of disappointments. I only have one hope left, but if this fails as well, tell her to let an old man die as he lived. Alone."

Amundsen began typing words into the search engine, which re-scanned Gakupo's programming looking for phrases with those key words.

He typed in "Happy."

The computer came up with song lyrics, but nothing else.

He typed in "Sad."

The computer came up with the title of a book: "Why do rain clouds make me sad?" But nothing else.

Amundsen typed in "dreams" and he found a poem which he thought suited him:

"The king of dreams

sits on his throne,

He's never asleep,

He's never alone."

He also found a flood of song lyrics which he scanned through quickly, but nothing else.

Amundsen paused a moment typing in the words he really wanted to find, but before he could steady his trembling fingertips something crashed against his back window.

Something strong.

"Lazarus Tobias Amundsen!" Master shouted full of rage. "Open this goddamn door!"

Amundsen's blood turned to ice. "No." he told himself. "It can't be."

Gakupo turned and peered over his shoulder. With a rush of relief he saw Luka, standing at the window while Master and Gumi took turns smashing against the glass.

Luka caught Gakupo's eye and she felt a surge of power. Not only was he alive, but he was right there. She could have reached out to touch him, if not for the glass in between them.

Amundsen realized that the fans were unreliable. They hadn't even slowed down the Master. He shouted at the window "FINE! YOU'RE HERE! BUT YOU CAN'T GET IN, THE GLASS IS BULLET PROOF!"

Master looked at the frame of the door and Amundsen whispered. "You're just going to have to let me finish." It had been so long since he'd spoken to anyone; his voice was hoarse and irritated from the strain of shouting.

Master laughed and waved Amundsen over to the glass. He took a single step forward, but he refused to walk past Gakupo.

Master leaned in close to the glass and spoke in a low tone: "Yes, you've really outdone yourself this time Amundsen, you've made a fortress that is virtually impenetrable, but I'll tell you what…

"The hinges to this door are on the outside." Master said with an evil gleam in her eyes.

Amundsen quickly scanned the glass door for the hinges. It was true. They were outside with Master.

"What, what, what, what are you going to do Nicolai?"" Amundsen said reaching up nervously to fix his glasses which had fallen down the brim of his nose.

Master pulled a hammer out of her pocket. She had forgotten to put it away when she left the house, but she as glad it had come in handy. With a mighty battle cry she swung the hammer with all of her might on the small roll of metal above her head, which gave a shattering "CLA-ANG"

Amundsen cried out in surprise. He knew that there were only two hinges and in mere moments she would have them both off. With one blow she had already disfigured the top hinge into a crinkled, crumpled piece of splitting metal; just barely hanging together.

Amundsen jumped back to his keyboard and tried to steady his shaking hands, but he couldn't focus over the ringing of metal.

"CLA-ANG, CLA-ANG, CLA-ANG"

He tried to type but his fingers kept missing the keys. One of his cuts re-opened and spilled dark blood all over the keys, obscuring the letters and making it hard to see.

"kovr, lobe, lovr…" Amundsen was at his wit's end. He brushed the keys off with his sleeve and finally got the right word: "Love."

Gakupo's screen lit up with countless lyrics to hundreds of songs, but Amundsen rolled through them quickly.

Luka mouthed words to Gakupo through the glass. Gakupo read her lips carefully. "Are you hurt?"

Gakupo mouthed back "No… nice…man." But Luka looked confused. She didn't understand, she thought she had read wrong.

"What?" She mouthed back as Master put her full weight into the hammer's final swing on the bottom hinge.

"Hoaaaaah!" she cried as the hammer hit, then knocked off the last hinge. The twisted piece of battered metal fell of and bounced away into the yard out of sight.

Gumi kicked the door and it swung open backwards before totally falling to the floor with a massive clatter.

Amundsen looked around in total panic. He needed something…Anything to give him a chance!

Anything to get him out with her!

He spotted the shaft of a knife sticking out of a book. He'd put it there to hold his place, but now he pulled it out sending the pile of books toppling to the floor.

He leapt over to Gakupo and turned the chair towards Master with what felt like the last of his strength. Before she could take more than a breath he had pressed the knife against Gakupo's cheek and bellowed out an inhuman word, sounding like the maniac she probably already took him for.

Amundsen began to wonder if maybe he was, just a little bit crazy.


	22. Chapter 22

Luka screamed as she saw the glint of a blade against Gakupo's cheek. But once the scream was gone it felt like she couldn't take her breath back.

Gakupo gasped as he felt the chill of the flat knife pressed against his face. Suddenly he wondered how much trouble he was in exactly.

He hardly heard Luka scream. It was as if he had fallen back into a dream, and things were happening outside of him.

What brought him back to reality was the feeling of something dripping down his neck on the opposite side of the blade.

Amundsen had his fingers against Gakupo's chin, holding his head in place and the blood from the finger tips was dripping down Gakupo's neck and onto his shoulder.

Suddenly Gakupo felt hyper-vigilant. He saw and felt everything in mortifying detail. He saw the beads of nervous sweat sliding down Luka's cheek and Master's eyelid twitch while the rest of her face remained stoically still; he heard Gumi's panicked breathing and Doctor Amundsen's fluttering heartbeat. He felt the blood slowly saturating his Jinbaori, spreading the sticky wetness across his shoulder.

"My god." Gakupo thought as reality sank in around him.

"My god." He thought again, because he didn't seem to be able to form a better thought.


	23. Chapter 23

"Please." Amundsen gasped as he realized the depths of his own crime.

"If you'll please…" Amundsen knew that even though he was out numbered he had the upper hand. If he could only think of what he wanted to do next!

Amundsen realized he was praying, or to be more precise he was bargaining with God to get him out of his lab with his mind and soul intact.

"Dear lord, please, if you're up there! I don't want this anymore; I don't want to do this, get me out of here!" He silently pleaded, and for several painful seconds he imagined the ceiling parting and angels scooping him up and out of his lab, but nothing happened.

Master quickly scanned the room. She was thinking rapidly.

Her eyes landed over Amundsen's shoulder at a glimmer of green light. It was a door covered in glow-in-the dark stars. Master imagined the map in her mind and too a decisively risky gamble.

She bolted for the door.

Amundsen realized as she passed him exactly where she was going and with a cry of fear he dropped the knife which landed harmlessly in Gakupo's lap and he threw himself in between her and the door.

Luka watched as the two scientists faced off and she thought that their fluttering lab coats made them seem like battling swans.

She ran to Gakupo and she held his face tenderly. He was whole and alright and alive and Luka felt tears of joy escape out of the corners of her eyes. She kissed his cheeks and hugged him briefly.

Gakupo whispered into her ear. "The computer… have to synch me… he computer."

Luka looked into his dark eyes and saw a flicker of longing. Gumi was already at the computer and starting to try and shut down the page with all of Gakupo's programming. The mouse hovered over the close tab option.

"No!" Luka whispered pulling away Gumi's elbow "We have to synch him to the computer."

Amundsen felt the last bit of blood drain out from his face. He'd given up the only advantage he had. She had tricked him into not only letting his hostage go, but also revealing the location of that which he cared for most. A heinous trick.

"So what's back there Lazarus?" Master asked flashing him a look with her sharp brown eyes.

Amundsen puffed up his chest and held out his arms. If it killed him tonight, he was going to have one last stand. He had one last thing to protect and this was his one last chance to protect her.

Lazarus Tobias Amundsen." Master said softly. "Toby." She hummed his old nick-name and he felt all of his strength ebb away. He hadn't a chance, he hadn't the strength he couldn't do anything.

He let the air out of his chest with a long sigh, like the air deflating from a balloon and he let his arms swing loosely at his side. No matter what else happened, it was over.

It was over before it began.


	24. Chapter 24

Luka clicked on the synch icon and watched as the black screen lit up with the figure of an hourglass. In just a moment Gakupo would be fully linked and he could be disconnected from the computer's wires.

Gakupo waited patiently while trying to flex his fingers. For a few moments he thought that nothing had changed and that he might be mostly paralyzed forever. His fingers would only curl up part of the way and only very slowly, but suddenly they curled up into a fist immediately. He tried both hands and they both responded perfectly.

He lifted his arms and they rose into the air effortlessly. With a grin he reached back and tore out the wires unceremoniously and tossed them on the ground.

Luka watched as he carefully lifted himself up onto his feet and give a little leap with joy. She smiled as he walked over to her and wrapped his arms around her and kissed her passionately.

Gakupo had wanted to kiss Luka since his dream earlier that night. He finally tasted the only person he wanted to love or be loved by.

Gakupo relished in being able to hold her in his arms, and in being able to pick her up and spin her around.

Luka laughed as Gakupo put her gently down and gave his sister Gumi a great bear hug around the neck. Gumi kissed him tenderly on the cheek and said softly "We missed you."

Gakupo smiled warmly as he pulled them both into a group hug. "I missed you to."

"My God Amundsen." Master had opened the door and she still clung to the gleaming gold handle as the strength in her legs gave out and she leaned against the door frame for support.

"Yes," Amundsen said standing behind her, unable to face her at all. Tears of frustration and guilt ran down his face, getting caught in his wrinkles and running along the crevasses instead of falling down into his beard. "My God."

"What have you done?" Master said rubbing her forehead.

"I'm not sure anymore."


	25. Chapter 25

Master knelt down in the door way and held out both of her arms. "Come here honey; that's it."

Gakupo stared at her crouched figure in the doorway and for a moment he couldn't imagine what she might have been doing.

Luka latched onto Gakupo's Jinbaori and watched, fixated on Master, unable to see over her shoulder into the room except for the yellow wallpaper and the mobiles which hung from the ceiling.

Master grabbed onto something and with a heaving grunt picked her up and balanced her on her hip.

Gakupo's jaw dropped in surprise as Master walked back into the lab carrying a child. Luka stared in disbelief as Master knocked away books and glassware with a sweep of her arm and cleared a small spot on one of the tables. She lifted up the child and sat her down on the table and looked over her with wonder.

She looked like she was only about six or so, with fluffy blond hair like See U's which curled around her face adorably. Master could tell she was well cared for.

"You don't understand." Amundsen mumbled at the floor trying to justify her to Master.

"I understand." Master said slowly noticing the vacant look in the little girl's eyes. The little girl's grass-green eyes.

"My god Amundsen." Master said turning to the old man who was lowering himself to the floor. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"It all happened so fast. It wasn't fair." Amundsen said choking on his word with tears.

Master was silent for a moment, and the only sound in the room was Amundsen's occasional sob. She turned back to the little girl and glanced at the other three Vocaloid.

Gakupo caught her eye and he stared, hypnotized as she nodded towards the child. As if to say "watch this."

Master took the little girl's chubby hands in her own slender finger and asked her a few questions.

"What does this face mean?" and Master smiled a big toothy grin.

The little girl responded robotically and emotionlessly. "It is a smile."

"When do people smile?"

"When they are happy." She replied blankly.

"When are people happy?" Master pressed.

"When good things happen."

"Do good things happen to you?"

The little girl took a few moments to respond. "Er. Ah. My daddy buys me dresses and pats…my head." She said even more mechanically.

"And are you happy."

There was another long pause in the little girl before answering tonelessly. "Probably."

Master let the little girl's hands go and she covered her eyes with her hands. "She's really intelligent Amundsen….really really bright…"

Gakupo looked from Master, to the child, to the old man and a story started to form in his mind.

Master and Amundsen worked together on Vocaloids, that's how they knew each other. Amundsen left and built an animatronic child, but he couldn't figure out how to program in emotions.

"You don't understand." Amundsen said sucking back cool air that felt refreshing on his hot throat. His face was uncomfortably sticky, but he couldn't wipe it with his sleeve because it would smear blood all over his face.

"Yeah." Master finally admitted. "I'm starting to get that now."

She turned and threw something across the room at Gakupo, Gumi and Luka. Gakupo dove out to catch it forcing Luka to let go of his shirt.

Luka stood still for a moment, still shocked about the child, still reeling from the panic of almost loosing Gakupo, still pumped up on adrenaline from storming the house. She looked at her hands where the memory of Gakupo's cloak still lingered and she felt as though she had lost something.

Gakupo caught it and held it in his cupped hands. He opened them to find that 'it' was the car keys.

"Go home kids." Master said lowering herself down to the floor where Amundsen already sat. "I'll be back in a few days."

"No!" Gakupo said with a slightly hurt tone. "We're not going to leave you here!"

"Yes, you are." Master said strongly.

"No we're not!" Luka protested stepping up next to Gakupo. "We need you back at home; you have to come back with us!" Luka bit the inside of her cheek. She knew her argument sounded childish, but it was true.

"Honey." Master let the term of endearment flop out awkwardly and let it hang there a moment as she gathered her thoughts. "I've spent years and years in that house. More than I should have. That's what let it get this bad in the first place."

Amundsen looked at Master bewildered. She grimaced and continued.

"This is my fault. I neglected you, old friend."

"No, that wasn't it at all!" Amundsen argued but Master gently put her fingers to her lips.

"Yes, it is." Master started to say, then shook her head sadly.

"Just go home. Maybe help clean up a little bit. I'll be back in a few days."

Gumi held Gakupo's hand as he took one last look at the whole scene. Two scientists, one young one old, sat together reflecting on miseries in a darkened lab. One had arms drenched in blood, the other had smears of black. Amongst the clutter was a little girl, who involuntarily had started the entire thing.

Gakupo thought he might remember the entire scene exactly that way forever as he wrapped one arm around Luka's waist pulling her close to him.

In single file they ducked out the empty space where the glass door used to be and wandered out into the snow.


	26. Chapter 26

"Are you alright?" Gakupo whispered pushing Luka's hair behind her ear gently as Gumi led the way through the snowy yard to where the car was parked.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" She said weakly.

"Maybe." Gakupo said swooping in for a tender kiss on her cheek. Luka felt her face heat up inexplicably as Gakupo continued. "But I know how you are. You try to bear every burden by yourself."

Luka almost began to argue, but Gakupo silenced her with a well-timed, slow steady kiss. They both stopped walking and fell into the passionate kiss happily.

Gakupo broke away from the kiss briefly. "You're the only person I want." he gasped and Luka leapt into his kiss and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"I need you Luka." Gakupo whispered as Luka broke away. "You keep me sane, you make me so…" Gakupo realized he didn't know what a good word was for the euphoria he felt when he looked into Luka's eyes.

Luka saw him searching for the right word and mischievously decided she had heard enough. She kissed him again and as her lip slid away from his the right word came to Gakupo.

"Elated!" Gakupo exclaimed and laughed as it began to snow. Luka giggled as tiny white crystals got caught in Gakupo's hair giving him a white halo.

She held his hand and tried to explain her feelings to him, but first she tried to sort them out in her own head first. "You make me feel so special..." she stumbled through the first words that came to mind.

"Gakupo, I didn't realize how much I relied on you!" Luka declared suddenly "At first I was afraid to lean on anyone too much, or to trust anyone to much, because I was scared of being hurt!"

Luka blushed deeply. Why was she saying this? Where had all of this come from?

"But with you, it doesn't even feel like I'm taking a chance. I WAS hurt Gakupo, but I hurt worst when I thought you'd been taken away!"

Gakupo watched Luka struggle with her new found feelings and he began to see the rest of Luka. He'd almost forgotten how self-reliant she was. He'd lost sight of the stubborn, independent girl in the throes of fawning over her and in the excitement of their new relationship. He remembered that he'd loved that part of her first, and foremost.

"So…um, what I mean to say is, uh!" Luka's words suddenly failed her and she was reduced to stuttering. Gakupo pecked her on the side of the cheek and Luka took in a deep soothing breath.

"I mean, um. I need you…too."

Gumi looked up and down the street trying her best to ignore the infuriating love-fest just behind her. She didn't see any black vans, even though there had been at least three when they arrived.

"Hmm, looks like the kid did it after all." Gumi said as she spotted the blue car that they had pulled up in down the street where they had been forced to park.

Gumi looked both ways before crossing the deserted street. "Okay guys, I'll drive!" she said suddenly as she began forming an evil plan.

"NO!" Luka cried out in horror, reflecting on the fact that the car could go faster than 120 miles per hour.

Gakupo looked at her curiously and Luka stammered out an excuse. "uh, ah,um…. I want to drive."

Gumi grinned. "If you're sure then I'll just sit in the back with Gakupo."

Gakupo shook his head. "Uh-uh. I call shotgun."

Luka took the keys from him and unlocked the doors while Gumi grouchily sulked in the back seat.

Gakupo felt his battery stating to dwindle and he reached out and touched Luka's arm. "I love you so much." He said as his voice began to quiver. "And I want you to know that you were my strength in there. I thought of you…" and his voice started to crackle and die.

"Battery's dying." He said as his smooth voice came out like static.

"Sit back." Luka demanded. "You have to conserve energy before we get back home."

"I need to tell you this now…" Gakupo insisted but Luka cut him off.

"That's fine, but I don't think I can carry you into the house if you're battery dies." Luka said.

"I'll do it!" Gumi chimed in from the back seat.

Gakupo would have responded but suddenly his body decided to stop working and almost immediately afterwards so did his vision.

"Crap, not again." He thought as he descended into a forced calm. He could still hear Luka and Gumi, but he knew it wasn't going to last long. He decided to just enjoy the peace, since he knew once they got home it would be swept away in some new drama. Oddly though, he was okay with that.

"Gakupo, Gakupo?" Luka called at him as the car revved to life.

"He's gone." Gumi said glumly. "So much for conversation."

Luka sighed. "I wonder if he can still hear us?"

"But I can, Luka my love." Gakupo thought dreamily.

Gumi looked at him, with his eyes closed and his expression blank and blushed. "I don't know. But doesn't he just look so peaceful?"

Then sounds were gone and all that was left for Gakupo was the stillness of his own thoughts while he waited in suspense for the blackness that came when your battery runs out.

Gumi's words still echoed in his ears. "Doesn't he just look so peaceful?"

Gakupo thought a while about what those words meant. Peaceful? He hadn't felt peaceful in a long time.

But was he peaceful now? Gakupo wasn't sure if peace came along he would be able to recognize it.

He still had so many questions. About the Master, about Amundsen.

He realized that even though Master knew everything about the Vocaloids, they knew very little about her. Gakupo felt that he knew next to nothing about her. He didn't know how old she was, or where she was born. He'd kind of only thought of her as something of a mother, with no life outside of the Vocaloid family; now he realized that she had lived before Project Vocaloid.

He still had so much to say. He wanted to tell Meiko and Kaito congratulations and ask them what it feels like to get married. He wanted to tell Luka everything that passed through his mind when he saw her face.

Gakupo thought back to the last time his battery was dying and he realized it was the night that his relationship with Luka began. The night he cast away his fears and doubts. When his battery was recharged he was literally a new man, with almost every part of his body reformatted to the standard Vocaloid design.

Now as the seconds ticked onward and Gakupo felt his time as a lucid thinker grow short he hoped that he would be a new man again. He hoped that he would be reborn without any fears or...

But then suddenly the last of his mind shut down and Gakupo was lost among the blackness in a dream of nothingness within the folds of the deepest of calms.

When Luka pulled into the drive way of the Vocaloid home there was a crowd outside in the snow. Dr. Evil had heard the alarm, talked to some of the Vocaloids and got the gist of what had happened and brought over all of the Vocaloids that were staying with him so that he could help repair some of the damage.

Dr. Evil had a tracking device on each of Master's three cars so that he knew when she would be coming to his house for a surprise inspection, he used the tracking software on his phone to tell all of the other Vocaloids when Master would be coming home, so they were all waiting outside when they arrived.

Gumi was the first person out of the car. She calmly and gravely walked to the passenger side door and slowly opened it. Gakupo who was leaning against the side of the door spilled out into her arms.

She unbuckled his seat belt and picked him up using her super strength.

Rin Len and Piko Utatane stood in front of the older Vocaloids like Kaito and Meiko. When they saw Gakupo in Gumi's arms Rin gasped "Is he DEAD?" and Piko started to tear up as he prepared to start sobbing. Len turned as white as a sheet, but stood completely motionless saying nothing.

Gumi looked down sadly, but Luka punched her on the arm. "Don't play mean jokes like that!" Luka hissed. "He's fine!" she assured the teens "His battery just died."

Rin made an indignant noise "Gumi!" She roared as Gumi giggled and winked playfully carrying Gakupo to his room to get recharged.

Kaito fell to the floor on his knees and sighed as blood returned to his face and extremities. He honestly believed that Gakupo was gone. Vocaloid Lily laughed tossing her long straight blonde hair over her shoulder. "Oh, Kaito-nii! You need to learn when Gumi is just joking!"

Meiko jealously lodged herself in between Kaito and Lily as he helped him stand up and they followed Gumi into the warm house.


	27. Chapter 27

Gakupo felt energy surging through him. His mind and his words began to start up again.

"…regrets." He finished his earlier sentence.

"What?"

Gakupo looked up and realized that he was on his bed with Luka looking over him familiarly. He was plugged into his power cord and he was safe at home. With Luka.

"No more fears or regrets." He repeated throwing his arm around Luka and pulling her down over him.

Luka toppled unsteadily and she gasped, her mouth in a surprised 'o'. Gakupo planted a wet kiss on her expectant lips and she broke away as she pulled herself upright.

"My heart is yours and yours alone, princess." Gakupo hummed as Luka shook off her surprise.

"Did you hit your head or something?" Luka said chuckling as Gakupo turned himself around to face her.

"Maybe." Gakupo said basking in her beauty. The sun was rising and cast her skin in a glorious orange glow, making her soft pink hair gleam with shades of crimson. Gakupo ached for her.

"Or maybe I just realized how much you mean to me. Maybe I just realized how much I depend on your smile." Gakupo said as Luka tossed her soft, silky hair over her shoulder.

"You're so sweet." Luka said grinning shyly.

"I'm serious." Gakupo said earnestly. "I want you, I need you. I worship you."

He sat up in his bed and Luka turned a dark shade of red that he had never seen before.

"Am I dreaming?" She whispered beneath her breath.

Gakupo reached out to her and kissed her. "Maybe." He admitted "But could you do us both a favor and never wake up, if this is a dream."

Luka felt her head spin as Gakupo pulled her into his arms in a warm, tender embrace.

"Gakupo, wait!" Luka said putting her hand on his chest and pushing him away softly.

Gakupo let himself be pushed, but he was perplexed. Why was Luka acting so standoffish? Why was Luka being so distant?

"What's wrong?" Gakupo asked her in a gentle whisper.

Luka looked away from him embarrassed; her face was hot and red as a tomato. "Um, maybe you might want to do this some other time?"

"What?" Gakupo exclaimed "Other time?" He was about to ask why when he turned his head slightly and noticed that Luka was not the only other person in the room with him.

Sweet Ann covered her mouth with her hands to hide the wild laughter that Gakupo could hear and Kiyoteru leaned against the door with his arms crossed grinning. Gumi had covered her entire face with both of her hands and was sitting in his closet trembling and Len was on the ground beating his fists against the floor laughing hysterically.

Gakupo's jaw dropped and he felt all of the blood rush away from his face.

"Oh." He said flatly trying to hide his embarrassment and horror.

"Yeah." Luka said pushing Gakupo back down onto the bed where he sat numb with shock. "Oh."

* * *

Master watched the Vocaloids leave through the hole in the glass and she felt a cold chill blow in from the outside. She would pay to fix Amundsen's door, later.

"None of this is your fault Nicolai." Amundsen grunted into his hands. "You had no part in it. It was all my doing."

"Ah, and that…" Master said watching the little girl swing her legs absentmindedly where she sat on the counter. "That is where we are both wrong."

Master sat next to Amundsen on the floor and to her it seemed as natural as if they had been close friends all of these years. She had a vague sense that something wasn't quite the same, but nothing strong enough to act upon.

"I had no part in any of this, and yet it is still my fault." She said pulling a box of toothpicks out of her pocket. Years ago she had quit smoking, but whenever she needed to focus or think hard she still required something to gnaw on or hold in her mouth. It was the one habit from her past that she just couldn't cure.

Master stuck a toothpick into the side of her mouth and offered the box to Amundsen who refused her with a wave of his hand.

"I don't quite understand you, Nicolai." Amundsen said as his fingers hovered near his lips, preparing to be chewed on. "Maybe I never have."

Master smiled sadly and her toothpick flipped up and down in her mouth. "I've kept tabs on you all of these years Toby. I've tracked your success and your business."

Master used her tongue to switch her toothpick to the other side of her mouth. "So I knew when the accident occurred."

Amundsen shook his head and looked at Master curiously. "You don't mean?"

Master sadly nodded. "I knew about the accident. But even so, I never sent you a single letter. I never visited you in your grief. I never saw you at all."

Master stared at Amundsen as she made her point. "I NEGLECTED you."

Amundsen slowly rubbed his temples. "What good would that have done?" he grumbled. "I only considered you as a reference and as an afterthought while making her; only in terms of project Vocaloid."

Master bowed her head in acceptance "Maybe so," she mumbled over the narrow piece of wood.

"But tell me this." She said suddenly with a quivering voice. "If you had, even once, been rescued from that god-awful loneliness that comes after a loss; even once. And don't tell me that you weren't lonely. Would it have turned out quite this way?"

Amundsen didn't know what to say. He'd never given any thought to what might have been, he'd been too deeply immersed in what WAS. He'd thrown himself so deeply into making his child; he never quite had the opportunity to come up for air.

Should he have tried reflecting on all of the different options after the accident? Amundsen thought so, but he realized that he had never really taken any time to think. As soon as it had happened he had lost himself in his work. He realized now with a twinge of sadness that he hadn't even taken the time to mourn.

Master looked down suddenly. "They just don't get it. Non-programmers. The crushing loneliness that comes from hours of ticking away at the keys. You can get so lost in it that it consumes your life."

Amundsen listened to her for a moment then grunted a reply. "Tell me about it."

Master laughed. "I'm sorry," she said. "This is YOUR intervention isn't it."

She sighed. It felt good to laugh again, even a little. Her eyes fell back on the little girl and she wondered silently "What are we going to do with you?"

But all she said was "I notice that she has her eyes."

Amundsen almost didn't hear the question. He was lost in thought. It finally dawned on him that he was lonely. Lonely. Lonely.

Lonely was the right word for what he was feeling. Lonely was the perfect word. It epitomized all of those restless nights and all of those empty hours that he had spent throwing himself into work and other tasks.

Lonely was exactly how he felt, going to the frozen yogurt bar alone for the first time in three years, lonely was how he felt when he realized that the only thing to wake up to in the morning was the monotone buzzing of his alarm, lonely was how he felt when he realized that not only was he without a car, but also without a reason to want to go out anymore.

And worst of all; lonely was how he felt when he had started up his new child, and she had nothing to say to him.

He remembered vividly that night. He'd had so much hope after so many years of tedious and laborious work; but when she opened her eyes for the first time there was nothing.

No light, no reflection, no thoughts. No feelings, no heart.

Amundsen groaned then answered. "Yes, she has Marie's eyes. I re-made them painstakingly by memory. It took a long long time, but I can still remember her eyes best of all."

Amundsen let his hand drop into his lap. He decided he would try to fight the impulse to bite them. "Her eyes, haunted me for quite some time. She had a way of staring at a person so…"as Amundsen looked for the right word he saw Marie's eyes once again, as clear as they had been the day he met her.

"So steadily. She would catch you with her startling eyes and she would hold your gaze."

Amundsen mused his thoughts a little bit. He hadn't thought of Marie, dear Marie too often since the fatal accident on the cold road in the mountains of her home. He was afraid that if he let himself mourn, that would make her death real. But tonight he sat with his old friend and thoughts of Marie didn't HURT anymore.

They were welcoming and gentle.

As was the feeling of calm that was spreading over him. He began to feel drowsy and he realized that he needed some sleep in the worst sort of way.

"…I'm tired." He said finally after what he figured to be a long silent pause. "We can work on her a bit tomorrow."

The words sounded strange coming from Amundsen and he discovered that he had never put off working on his child before. He'd always worked as though there was some kind of deadline, often past the point of exhaustion.

"If you're sure." Master said feeling a bit sleepy herself. "Oh, and I broke one of your windows. I'll pay for it."

"Whatever." Amundsen said lifting himself off the floor and listening to his joints creak. He walked over to his robot-daughter and she gazed up at him blankly with Marie's dark-green eyes.

"Time for bed." He said picking her up and holding her tenderly, like he would've his own child. She made a mechanical bleating noise in response. Amundsen was use to this, though it had surprised him when he first heard her bleat instead of speak. He figured that maybe when she had emotions she would know how to respond normally.

"Just go pick a room; whenever you're ready tomorrow we can start." Amundsen said carrying his daughter back into her room.

He laid her down in her pink canopy bed and she allowed herself to be propped up on fluffy yellow and pink pillows. She stared at him as he tucked her into bed, accidentally kicking aside some story books she had propped up next to her unopened toy chest.

Amundsen picked up the books and read the titles: The snow queen, the seven swans, and the river princess; All fairy tales that he himself had grown up on. He'd saved the books from his childhood for his child and he was glad to see that they were being read.

"Are these good stories?" He asked fearing the answer.

"Probably." She said monotonously.

Amundsen grumbled as he re-shelved the books, careful not to harm their worn, torn paperback covers. He looked up and saw Master standing at the door watching him as he climbed over the child-sized table and chairs in front of the book shelf.

"Never thought I'd see you here." Master said. "Never imagined you with a kid. Makes me feel old." She said rubbing her bloodshot eyes with the back of her hand. "What's her name anyhow? You haven't said it yet?"

Amundsen walked over to the doorway as his child slowly closed her eyes and descended into a dreamless sleep. He turned off the light and shut the door knowing that she would not wake up until about eight in the morning.

"Her name is Hikaru." He said staggering through the garbage on the floor of his lab as he tried to remember where his bedroom was. It had been so long since he'd been to bed; he usually just passed out from exhaustion in his swivel chair. "Marie picked it out."


	28. Epilogue

**Thank you, Thank you, all of you who have read my story, and the FIVE of you that have reviewed! Here is the little epilouge to our tale, and with it one-thousand wishes for happiness and longevity! Vocaloid forever!**

* * *

Gakupo rocked the hammock gently with his toes as he enjoyed the combined heat from the spring sun and Luka who was pressed against him.

"I want to go somewhere." Luka murmured into his ear right beside him, entwining his fingers with her own.

"The land of dreams counts as somewhere, right?" Gakupo teased. Luka pouted and rested her arm lazily over his stomach.

Inside, Gakupo listened to the Vocaloids Prima and Tonio belting out something from an opera in Italian while Sonika tried to harmonize it with some pop in a strong British accent. Something smashed and Haku bellowed out "Damn it Dell!" and a whole host of other cataclysmic noises erupted from inside the house where every Vocaloid had been packed into except the few who were in the middle of world tours.

Master still hadn't returned from Dr. Amundsen's house, so Dr. Evil had moved in with all of the other Vocaloids to make sure that they would be taken care of and well maintained. Consequently he had to bring all of the Vocaloid living with him and move them into the Master's house.

It was a tight squeeze and many Vocaloids had to share rooms, but all in all, it was amazing to see them all together. Gakupo had forgotten how many Vocaloid there were, and thought he still kept in touch with almost everyone; it was still a surprise to find out how much he didn't know about his fellow Vocaloid.

Like when Big Al came up behind him and slapped him on the back and spoke to him in English; Gakupo had no clue who he was for a moment. He hastily remembered and apologized, but he could see he had hurt his feelings. Sweet Ann and Sonika had been shooting him nasty looks all day.

"I guess we probably should go out for a while." Gakupo finally admitted as a cloud passed in front of the sun. "It's been a while since we've been out on a date. It would be nice to get away from the house."

Luka hummed in reply. Gakupo wanted to get away from the house, but he really didn't want to move. It was so nice to relax for a bit, enclosed in the soft cloth hammock with the gentle sun soaking into his body and Luka's soft head nestled snuggly beneath his chin.

"Come on." Luka said. "We haven't gone on a real date in forever, it's time to unwind."

Gakupo couldn't argue with Luka on that. He was suffering a bit of cabin fever from being shut inside his room working on releasing his new album, 'Familiar Affairs'. Last minute he had needed to come up with a few new songs and he had worked tirelessly on them for almost a straight week. Gakupo worried that Luka was feeling a bit neglected, so he enticed her to lay with him in the sunlight.

"We don't need to go anywhere that costs money," Luka continued, "So we wouldn't need to go back inside the house. We could just sneak off now, and no one would be any the wiser!"

Gakupo had to admit, it sounded as though Luka had thought up the perfect plan to escape. He found that once he re-entered the house, he would get dragged into one of the numerous activities that were happening every moment. There was always some new mess to pick up, some new song to write, someone singing at all hours of the night… There was never any peace!

He knew that if he wandered back into the house, he might not escape in time to go anywhere. He thought for a moment, and then he blurted out "Alright! Let's just go!"

Luka looked up at him and grinned. She swung her legs over the side of the hammock and carefully got up, sending Gakupo swinging unsteadily trying to reclaim his balance.

Gakupo steadied himself and also swung his legs over the side, letting the hammock drop him nimbly on his feet.

"Where should we go?" Luka asked as they approached the street from the front yard.

Gakupo looked both ways and started whistling some abstract tune. Either way seemed fine for him.

"Which way do you want to go?" He asked.

Luka thought for a moment. "Umm, let's take the north road into town."

Gakupo held Luka's hand loosely as they strolled up the street. He found his gaze wandering back over to her as they walked, though he would turn away when she looked at him.

Suddenly Gakupo heard the ringing of bells coming up behind them and he cautiously looked over his shoulder down the street.

The Kagamines, Rin and Len were pedaling their twin, black and yellow bikes as fast as they could in what seemed to be a race. Rin had added gold and silver bells on her bike, which hung down from the handlebars like strange, metallic fruit. Even from so far away Gakupo could hear the whirring and clicking of the gears in the bikes and he almost imagined he could hear the children panting. When he looked back over his shoulder to check their progress, he got a horrible shock.

Len's bike was out of control and he was struggling just to stay on top of it. He jerked the handle bars in a desperate attempt to maintain balance and the bike headed straight for them.

Gakupo watched it jump the curve and he yanked as hard as he could on Luka's arm while jumping back and out of the bike's path. Luka, who was completely unaware of the impending danger cried out in pain as she toppled over and landed hard on Gakupo, who couldn't hold the extra weight and tripped and fell onto the side walk painfully.

Len squealed as his bike crashed into a building, rolled backwards for a moment, then collapsed throwing him onto the side walk.

Gakupo held Luka in his lap as he tried to assess the damage to himself. As far as he could tell, he had only bruised his posterior.

"Are you alright?" He gasped as Luka turned to face him.

"Yeah, I think so." Luka responded blushing slightly. She still liked to think of Gakupo as a knightly figure, and every now and then, when he showed her chivalry she would be reminded of his noble promise of undying, unyielding love.

Len groaned where he had fallen and twitched. Gakupo had almost forgotten about him, and he sheepishly asked "Len, are you alright?"

Len rolled himself over and picked himself up grimacing "No, no, don't mind me. You just keep doing what you're doing and I'll limp home." He said sarcastically.

Luka picked herself up from Gakupo's lap and brushed herself off with dignity. "Come on now, don't pout! Did you hurt yourself?" she asked her little brother with clear compassion.

Len shrugged and rubbed his shoulder "I-I don't think so!" He said finally.

Gakupo stood up and brushed the dirt and gravel off of his white pants. When he stood up, he could see that Len's face was scraped with a rosy pink road burn that had started to bleed.

Luka stroked the side of Len's face and Gakupo felt a minute twinge of jealousy that he quickly shook off.

"You're bleeding." Luka said bluntly after a moment's thought.

"No way!" Len said in disbelief feeling his face frantically.

"You should really let Dr. Evil patch you up." Gakupo said as Len brought his hand away from his face with blood smeared in his palm.

Len sulked and curled his fist around the blood. "No, that's okay. I think I'll just wai-"

"LEN! Where did you go?" Rin cried as she pedaled back down the street.

"I'm over here!" Len shouted waving at her.

"I can see THAT! What happened?" Rin said easing on the brakes of her bike and gliding over to where Gakupo and Luka were crouched around Len.

"He crashed." Luka said as Rin hopped off of her bike and simultaneously released the kickstand.

"Oh my gosh, are you okay?" She asked kneeling down beside him and patting and stroking his hair and his shoulders.

Len puffed out his chest and pretended to look tough "Yeah, it's nothing this man can't handle!"

Rin laughed and stood up and helped Len up. "Well then Mister Man, let's go home and fix your face."

Len opened his mouth to speak, but Rin was already picking up his bike and handing it to him. He slowly closed it and hopped onto his bike and rode off back to the house. Rin followed him about halfway, but doubled back and shouted, "Bye Onii-chan, Onee-chan! Have fun on your DATE!" and with that she coasted on her bike until she reached to front yard of the house.

Luka watched them until they had disappeared into the house and Gakupo watched her. There was a glimmer in her eyes that he hadn't seen in a while and he had the sudden urge to hold her tightly.

He stretched out his hands and then balled them into fists and tried to restrain the feeling, at least until they were in private.

"I envy them a bit." Luka muttered letting her gaze drift away.

"Huh?"

"Oh, nothing." Luka said suddenly snapping her attention back to Gakupo. "I mean, it's flower season, let's go to the park!"

Luka clasped his hands and Gakupo had another strong urge to sweep Luka into his arms, but he settled for putting his hand around her shoulder and walking alongside her as they slowly made their way to the park.

Luka laughed as they turned the corner into the park where the cherry blossoms wee in almost full bloom. Gakupo blinked a few times in disbelief. Winter had just disappeared, why were the flowers already in bloom? He sighed and tucked his arm around Luka's waist.

"Just another sign of global warming, right?"

Luka grinned "Oh, you don't believe in that stuff do you?"

Gakupo snorted. "I didn't use to, but the recent weather has almost changed my mind."

Luka shook her head and rolled her eyes as a gust of spring wind tore through the tree tops sending a gentle shower of pink petals down into the hair of wandering park goers.

A young Spanish couple started jabbering in Spanish and suddenly broke into passionate kissing while rolling around on the pink ground carpeted in flowers, and old couple chuckled as petals got caught in their curly white hair and one stranger standing behind a large tree held out her hand and caught one of the falling flowers in her outstretched palm.

Gakupo looked at Luka, and he found that for a moment he was unable to catch his breath. Her eyes were glistening with dewy reverence and they reflected the falling flowers with shards of pink like shooting stars. Gakupo noticed that they matched the shade of her hair perfectly, so well in fact that he could barely tell that she had caught a few in her hair.

Luka however could see every petal in Gakupo's hair and she thought that the colors were very complementary. Pink and Purple.

Suddenly she felt as though the spring heat was too hot, and her cheeks were burning. Almost as if sensing his cue, Gakupo leaned in and gently kissed each of Luka's red cheeks with his cool, smooth lips. But that did little to cool Luka, if fact, she suddenly started blushing harder, becoming unbearably hot.

She tried to peel her high collar away from her neck, but that only released some of the heat off of her chest in a gust of hot air. To Luka, it felt like opening an oven door.

Gakupo noticed Luka turning red and tugging at her clothing uncomfortably. "Are you too warm?" He asked.

"Yeah." Luka responded. "It's weird too; I was so comfortable earlier… I hope that my cooling and heating programing isn't on the fritz!" She smiled sweetly as sweat poured off the sides of her cheeks.

"Maybe it's because you're wearing black?" Gakupo suggested moving through the trees searching for some better shade for Luka.

"Actually, my outfit is very cool." Luka said shaking the sweat out of her eyes. "See how thin it is?"

Gakupo nodded knowingly without intending to. He stopped himself when the old couple passing them chortled deeply.

Gakupo listened to the wind cutting through the trees and from just ahead of where they were he heard the tinkling bells from the cart of an ice-cream vendor.

"How about some ice cream?" Gakupo suggested as Luka began to walk unsteadily.

Luka felt as though she was wandering through a bright hot cloud as the sun beat against her temples. "Sound's good." She managed weakly.

Gakupo lead her ahead to where the trees were thick with flowers in the boughs and provided the deepest shade. He stopped and motioned towards the ground.

"You wait here where it's cool; I'll go and get you something!"

Luka sat down on the pink carpet of flowers and breathed the thick air deeply. It was a good ten degrees cooler in the shade than in the direct sun, but she still felt as though she were burning. "Okay, Thanks."

"Chocolate right?" Gakupo asked kindly smiling.

"If you can." Luka said.

As Gakupo turned and went to approach the ice-cream cart Luka shook off the heat and the sweat and held her head in her hands. She realized that she was fine as her heart-beat was slowing down to a reasonable level.

She smacked her forehead while Gakupo's back was turned. "What the hell was that?" She scoffed at herself "Get a grip!"

Luka was mortified at the idea that she could have had a panic attack; she was usually very well put together.

"Okay, I let myself slip. Fine, but I won't let it happen again!" She promised "I haven't seen Gakupo in how long? And now you want to freak out now!?" She grumbled angrily beneath her breath.

Gakupo jogged back to where Luka was resting, trying to shield the frozen treat from the hot sun.

Luka looked up at him and grinned unknowingly. To him, her smile was like a spring flower opening up for the first time and Gakupo felt his heart flutter, though he would never admit it.

He held out her chocolate cone and a few napkins. Luka took them and Gakupo fell down beside her with a sigh.

'This is fun!" He said shooting her one of his dazzling smiles.

Luka took a bite off the top of the swirl of ice-cream and found that she had trouble swallowing it; her throat was closed and her heart felt tight.

She finally swallowed when suddenly it hit her; why she was having so much trouble and fear.

She laughed merrily. "Ahahahahaha! I feel like we did when we started dating!"

Gakupo grinned with her "Me too!" he said.

Luka was silent as she tried to finish her cone before it had the chance to melt onto her hand. She licked all around the bottom of the cone while thinking of something else to say. Suddenly Gakupo snorted and covered his face to suppress a laugh.

"What? What is it?" Luka asked alarmed.

"You already have chocolate all over your face; it's a perfect circle around your mouth, hahaha!" Gakupo said in between laughter, pointing at her face and holding his stomach.

"You don't have to laugh that much!" Luka exclaimed as she embarrassedly wiped her face with the bundle of napkins.

"Did I get it?" Luka asked pulling the napkins away from her face.

"No, it's still there." Gakupo said. "Here, let me help." He leaned in and for a brief instant Luka felt her heart racing out of control, but she forced it to slow down. She took a deep breath and it mingled with Gakupo's scent of vanilla ice-cream.

He tenderly wiped the sides of her face with the napkin, stroking her gently and slowly. For the first time in a long time Luka felt the sensation of brimming with electricity. It was just as strong as it had been months ago.

Gakupo felt it too. He tried to control himself; he didn't want to embarrass Luka… But as he stroked the sides of her face, he couldn't help noticing the perfect shape of her mouth. Her sweet, downturned lips which she saved only for him.

Luka looked up into Gakupo's eyes and she saw falling flower petals in pools of violet. His eyes were a deep mesmerizing shade of purple with a starburst of darkness around the pupil. His lashes were long and they beat softly at the skin around his eyes. Luka thought that his eyelashes were seductively long, since they practically beckoned her to gaze directly into his eyes.

Gakupo leaned a little bit closer to Luka and he could smell the chocolate on her breath. He never really liked sweets, but he had to admit; the smell of chocolate made him feel passionate. It also made him feel hallow, and he desired to fill up the empty space with laughter or kisses. With Luka.

Luka stopped fighting the racing of her heart and she immediately began to heat up again, but instead of fighting it she accepted it, and almost immediately she felt cold inside, while burning without.

Gakupo brushed against Luka's lips momentarily, with a brief, brilliant surge of anticipation and electric attraction, and then pulled away. Something moving had caught his eye.

There was someone standing in the shade of the tree ahead of them, and she had begun walking away, her Lab coat billowing in the spring trees.

"It can't be…" Though her lab coat was stained with oil and grime and her hair was a great deal longer, there was no doubt in Gakupo's mind when she turned to face them.

"It's Master!" He exclaimed.

"What? Master!" Luka spun around where she sat as Gakupo stood straight up and pulled her to her feet.

Master stood staring at them blankly. She seemed to recognize them, but she made no movement their way, nor did her expression change in the least little bit.

Gakupo approached her and grabbed her shoulders "Are you alright, hey?"

Luka was close behind him "Master, don't you remember us, it's Gakupo and Luka." She said grimacing as their Master blinked heavily, as if fighting sleep.

"Gakupo…" Master said finally in a deep sigh. "It's been a while… lets go to a restaurant."

Gakupo and Luka exchanged identical confused glances. "A…restaurant?" Luka said slowly.

Master nodded. "I know a good one. I'm hungry. Let's go. My treat."

Luka looked towards Gakupo for guidance and he shrugged in acceptance. "Lead the way." She said.

Master moved like a zombie, with lurching gestures and heavy, plodding footsteps. Luka unknowingly had her hands outstretched in case she collapsed in front of them.

It wasn't until they had approached the restaurant doors that Master's knees seemed to give way from under her and in a flash Gakupo and Luka were under each arm holding her up.

Master shook them off like an annoyed elephant would shake off flies. "I'm fine I'm fine!" She exclaimed as she tripped inside the cool restaurant.

The Italian restaurant was extremely dark, almost to the point where it became hard to see the tables. It was only thanks to the neon signs every few feet that any light shone in the room at all.

Walking in from the bright spring sunlight, it was positively blinding and Gakupo followed the white shadow of Master's lab coat as he waited for the bright splotches of light to fade from his vision.

Luka clung to the back of Gakupo's Jinbaori and trusted him to lead her blindly forward. He stopped her gently with his arm when Master unexpectedly slid into a booth.

Gakupo and Luka sat opposite her and began to ask one of the burning questions that had been pressing them since they had left the park, but since the dark restraint was deserted, the waitress was already at their table.

"Can I start you off with something to drink?"

Master looked up weakly. "Lemonade?" she asked wearily.

"Same." Gakupo said.

"Same." Luka said eagerly.

The waitress walked away and Gakupo put both of his hands on the table and leaned toward Master.

"Okay, where have you been." He said whispering urgently. "It's been three MONTHS, do you realize that!"

Master nodded. "It took longer than I had thought. His programming is radically different than mine, I kept generating errors and emotions are all loop functions..."

"Well, you could have CALLED!" Luka scolded. "We've been worried sick about you!"

"I know." Master admitted. "Well, I figured anyway… I'm sorry." Master suddenly became silent and Gakupo almost asked another question, but just then the waitress came back from the kitchen with their drinks.

"Have you decided what you'll be having?" she asked cheerfully clinking down the glasses, carefully noting the strained expressions on each of their faces.

"The usual Mary." Master said noticing her name tag. "Don't worry, Raul knows what I mean." She assured her handing her the untouched menu.

"So you've been here before?" The waitress asked surprised.

Master grimaced. "It's been a while."

The waitress nodded, collected Gakupo and Luka's menus and shuffled into the kitchen to fix 'the usual'.

"I'm sorry," Master continued "but you know how I get. When I fall into a project, I sometimes lose myself in it."

"Don't say sorry to us." Luka warned. "Back home there are a lot of Vocaloids who have been freaking out about you being gone!"

Master nodded. "Yeah, you're right. I should think about what I'm going to tell everyone."

"Practice it on us first." Gakupo said folding his arms and leaning back against the booth. "There is still a whole lot that I don't understand about Amundsen and everything. Tell us everything you know."

Master took a long sip of her lemonade and drained it down by almost half. "You sure don't beat around the bush. I feel like I'm being interrogated!" She said smiling and rubbing the back of her neck.

Gakupo's expression didn't change. "You are. Tell me everything."

Master stared at him for a moment speechless. "Where should I start?" she mumbled.

"Start at the beginning." Luka urged her. "How do you know Amundsen?" Gakupo leaned forward and folded his hands in front of him.

Master stared at the neon sign depicting some kind of beach scene. "Well, I first met Tobias Lazarus Amundsen in collage. Back then he was a bit of a tough guy with big muscles and a ton of friends who called him Toby. God knows why he decided to go into engineering and robotics; he could have done anything he wanted to.

I was really shy, but super competitive, so soon we were both at the top of the class together in a neck-and-neck race for the best grade. I started to taunt him by calling him Toby, and that's probably why he started calling himself Lazarus…

About junior year I started planning for project Vocaloid, and by graduation Amundsen and I had enough respect for each other to actually consider working together."

"Who did have the best grade?" Luka asked inquisitively.

Master paused as though her mouth suddenly wouldn't work. "…I don't know." She said finally sipping her lemonade. "I can't remember. How do you like that? Seemed so important at the time though..."

Master stirred her straw through the lemonade and the chunks of ice clattered against the glass. The noise set Luka's teeth on edge, but before she could complain Master stopped and picked up her story again.

I funded the project a few years after collage with the proceeds from my personal experiment and since it was funded under my name, I was forced to take Amundsen as an 'intern'. But it was just a title, in truth we were partners most of the way through.

It wasn't until about the time we started developing emotion programming that Amundsen began to stray… He had copied a few programs onto his personal computer. Because I had so much respect for him, I let it slide.

When he fell in love with a young German girl named Marie he wanted off the project to spend more time with her. I was happy to oblige, but I confronted him about the programs he had taken. He became outraged and we seldom spoke after he stormed out of my lab that day." Master shook her head and sighed wearily.

"I kept tabs on him to ensure he never used any of the work I had patented. I watched his security company grow from obscurity to fame almost overnight due to some high-media crime. I heard about him in a scandal, or taking heat for his inventions failing to save lives, but mostly he lived a pretty normal life. I even knew when he bought the house he was living in."

"Wait… You say you went to collage with him?" Luka asked again.

"That's right."

"So, you were the same age as him?"

Gakupo suddenly realized what Luka was thinking. He'd actually thought the same thing too, a few times before.

"So why..." Gakupo looked over every feature of his Master, she had smooth skin which clung to her muscles and long, ginger hair without even a touch of white. In fact, she didn't look any older than Gakupo was supposed to be.

"Why are you still… young."

Master finished the last of her lemonade with a sucking noise that startled Gakupo, but she didn't answer right away. Gakupo pressed his fists against his thighs and wondered briefly what he could say to end the silence. Before he knew it he was confessing a dream that had filled him with doubts and questions.

"Once, I dreamed that I asked you the same thing." His voice quivered in a low tone that filled him with dread. It was as though he were telling a scary story instead of just another dream. "you smiled and pulled off your shirt and your body was shiny and brittle like porcelain."

Luka's breath caught in her throat. Gakupo looked so deadly serious. His eyes were frenzied, thought his face was as expressionless as stone.

"Where your stomach should have been there was a door with a tiny golden knob. You reached up and turned it, and the whole front of your body swung open, and there were gears and cogs inside. Like the inside of the grandfather clock. Bronze and silver gears." Gakupo stressed the word gears like an accusation.

Master smiled as she used her straw to stir up the ice cubes in her glass, which rattles and clanked terribly. Finally she sighed and said: "You think I've been replacing body parts with robot parts as my body gradually decays."

She still smiled, but Luka noted that it was a sad sort of grin.

"I'm not saying anything." Gakupo retorted coolly as he rested his chin back on his hands. "I'm only telling you about my dream."

For a moment there was a chill in the air as tension surrounded the booth. Luka felt frozen with tension, like a deer caught in car headlights.

Finally Master moved and waved over the waitress for a refill.

"No, I don't replace my body parts with Vocaloid parts, though that would have been a wiser idea." She said curtly as the waitress skipped over hoping to catch the interesting looking conversation. To her disappointment, Master silently stared between Gakupo and Luka while her glass was being refilled until the waiter left.

"Maybe if I had, I could still pretend to have some humanity left in me. I don't know what I am now, but all of what you see is original parts."

"What are you? A vampire?" Luka asked as Master started to drain her lemonade again. Master snorted and choked on her drink, laughing so hard she blew lemonade out of her glass. It spattered over the table and glistened in the glow of the neon signs.

"Ha, that's rich! I guess kind of!" she said wiping the lemonade up from the table where she had spilt it.

Gakupo glanced at Luka who looked at him, then to his folded hands.

"Look," Master said waving her finger between the two of them. "I promise that you'll find out one day, whether I tell you or not. It's too big to keep for too long. But for today, I think I just want to tell you a bit more about Amundsen. Then my conscience will be clear. For now."

Gakupo nodded slowly and silently and Luka hummed in dissatisfaction.

"Like I said. I knew all about Amundsen, so I knew the day that his wife died. I knew what had happened, I knew where, and I knew why."

Luka gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. She thought to herself "So there was a reason!"

"She was pregnant with their first born child; a girl, when she went out for a drive at night and the car skidded off the road on some black ice."

Gakupo looked down into his lap, suddenly sympathetic for the man he had only known once as his kidnapper.

"It was a hateless crime. There was no one and nothing to blame. Amundsen was alone for the first time in his life, so unable to turn anywhere else he threw himself into his work.

I guess after so many years of that he decided to take a gamble and MAKE himself a daughter. He went out of his way to make her just like the one he'd always imagined. You don't know this, but the girl looks JUST like Marie.

He worked on it for a few years and I suppose he hit a road block. He could only go so far on stolen programming. I have no idea however, how long he spent in dark despair before he decided to take a Vocaloid and steal the programming that way."

Master took a long pause to drink her lemonade. Gakupo tore himself from his train of thought just long enough to sip some of his own. It was poignant and tart and it was unlike any lemonade he had ever had before. He figured it must have been made from real lemons instead of the powdered mix he was used to.

Luka sat as silently as a stone statue. Her only memory of Dr. Amundsen was when he had held a knife to Gakupo's face. She could only see the crazy look in his eyes and the pained expression as he bellowed out something indiscernible and Gakupo's eyes reflected shock and fear as a scream escaped her lips. It was a hellish nightmare that played itself over and over when she thought of him. No matter how Gakupo had described him to her, she had always thought of him as an inhumane beast and a psychopath like the criminals on television. She hadn't been able to push that image of him out of her head, even though she kept it a secret from everyone.

Now, sitting and listening to how he had been when he was young and hearing about his horrible tragedy Luka was reminded of how he had cried when Master discovered his child. How he had sat on the ground like a little boy and wept about how they didn't understand.

Luka felt a twinge of sympathy where before there had only been disgust.

"How's the child?" Luka asked finally.

Master finished her second glass of lemonade and gasped. "She's doing well. She's very intelligent and she accepted emotions very easily."

Master glanced around the restaurant. "You'll never guess what the first words she said to Dr. Amundsen were." She dared in a low whisper.

Gakupo leaned in. "What?"

Master waved over the waitress. "She said: Thank you daddy, thank you so much."

Luka gasped in surprise. "Aww."

Master nodded. "Yes, she's a dear little thing. I wish them both the best in this world."

Gakupo ignored the waitress "What do you mean by that?"

"They're gone. This morning I woke up and went down to the lab and all that was left was a note: Thank you so much for all the blah blah blah, we've gone to live in Marie's home town. In the mountains where she was born. Surely that's where her spirit will linger, and that is where I want to raise our child, so that she can watch her grow." Master said clearly saddened.

"Where was she born?" Gakupo asked ignoring his straw and drinking more lemonade.

"Germany." Master said sighing. "I don't think I'll ever see him again. It's a shame since we've pretty much become good friends again.

"I'm sorry." Luka said solemnly.

"Not your fault." Master said gruffly. "I wish them the best… I really do."

Gakupo nodded. He felt as though he had a lot more insight as to what had happened to him. He no longer had any pressing questions, though a few did still linger in the back of his mind. He figured that he could wait a while to ask them though, Master was getting up out of the booth and she slapped down some cash to leave for the waitress.

"Well, I'm heading home." Master said to them without turning around. "Something tells me I'm needed. Enjoy you're date."

"Thanks." Luka said leaning into Gakupo.

Gakupo held his breath as Luka pressed against his arm. He'd forgotten that they were supposed to be on a date somewhere in the seriousness.

He tried to get romantic, but his mind was still sluggish with thoughts of Dr. Amundsen, the child and Master's mysterious immortality. He imagined the thoughts as clouds and he tried to imagine a wind coming and blowing them away leaving only blue skies and a clear mind, and that helped a bit.

"It's just crazy isn't it?" Luka said in a low tone, reaching out and grabbing his hand.

"What is?" Gakupo asked.

"All of this." Luka said immediately before hastily correcting herself. "I mean, in retrospect, of course."

Gakupo tried to look into her eyes but she buried her face into his shoulder. He couldn't see her expression. "I'm not quite sure what you mean."

"I mean…" Luka said peeking up at him with a flash of uncertainty in her blue eyes. "It's just… strange. You and I… we're not people… I mean…"

Luka tried hurriedly to gather her thoughts. The idea was fleeting and she felt that if she couldn't present it as it had been presented to her, Gakupo might not understand the way she understood.

"We think and act like people, so sometimes it's easy to forget that we're not... human. But with all that we do and say and feel, it's just so strange … to be an 'android'. I feel so human, but I AM so different… It's like… to be on the outside looking in."

Luka glanced at her untouched drink. "I guess what I'm trying to say… and it's not EASY but…"

Luka noticed she was flexing and working Gakupo's fingers nervously, so she stopped. "I guess, with all we know and all we learn as Vocaloid, we're really programed and taught to be human, so sometimes it shocks me, like it did with Amundsen; to realize that not everyone sees us that way."

Gakupo squeezed Luka's hand. "I think I know how you feel. Maybe every Vocaloid does a little bit too, even if they're not aware."

He kissed the top of Luka's head tenderly, for that was the only part of her that he could see, and said "All human literature and all human songs are about humanity and human emotion. We read human literature and write and sing human songs, so it's hard to remember that we're not… human right?"

Luka nodded. And Gakupo bit his lip, wondering if he should share what he was thinking.

"Do you want to know what I think?" He asked.

Luka nodded again and turned her body in the booth to face him. He sighed and tried to gather all of his beliefs that he had gathered from all of his years of 'living'.

"Me, personally; I think that once a Vocaloid lives for long enough, we stop needing our emotion programming and start growing souls of our own. The energies in that flow through the universe might just deposit into our empty bodies and make it so." He said with firm belief.

Luka said nothing at first. But finally she sighed and eased out over Gakupo, wrapping her arm around his neck and relaxing against his side.

"Do you really think so?" Luka asked.

"I do." Gakupo assured her.

"But does having a soul make us human?" Luka said mostly to herself.

Gakupo thought about it deeply. It was true that there were humans that were said to be soulless, but they were still human. He didn't know what to say, so he met a compromise with himself.

"I'm not sure, but it makes us more human, doesn't it?"

Luka looked up to him and kissed him on the side of the chin quickly. "That's really profound!"

Gakupo leaned into Luka's next kiss, which was much more passionate and lasted much longer.

Luka broke away for air. She glanced at the sheen she had left on his lips, and then her gaze flickered back to his gentle, violet eyes.

"I'm serious." She murmured, wondering if she was being hypnotized by the deep, unblinking eyes. "You could write a book on it."

But suddenly the spell was broken when Gakupo blinked and leaned in for another kiss. Luka snapped to her senses to find Gakupo's face pressed against her's.

She fell into the rhythm of his kiss and she noticed that it harmonized with the beating of his heart. Four heartbeats for every move his mouth made. Luka loved the tempo and tried to match it.

Suddenly Gakupo realized the waitress was trying to silently set up the table, so as not to disturb them. She was slowly putting down a plate of food and had quietly snuck up on them.

Gakupo broke away from Luka and hurriedly addressed the waitress. "Ah- um, I'm uh sorry."

He felt suddenly embarrassed, and the waitress made it even worse by acting just as embarrassed as he felt.

The waitress's face was flushed and she refused to look at either Gakupo or Luka in the eyes. "Um, no I'm sorry I should have waited, It's just, order's ready and uh…."

Gakupo looked down and saw that a large order of spicy smelling rolls had been placed in front of them with a cup of red sauce.

"Um, we didn't order this…?" Luka said cautiously as her heart rate started to slow down and her face became less red.

"Uh, one of 'the usual', which Raul says is the house rolls…" The waitress stammered checking her note pad. "If you want I could take them back…" she glanced at the cash that Master had left on the table and recoiled.

"Oh my gosh!" She said picking it up and holding it gently. "Is this to pay with?"

Gakupo looked and saw that the bill was a 2000 yen note; easily twice the amount that was needed for the food.

Luka glanced at him and shrugged. "We might as well. They're already paid for, and we would have to stop at the house for lunch."

Gakupo smiled and kissed her forehead. "Did I ever tell you that I love your mind?"

Luka picked up the fist-sized roll and tore off a piece, which she dipped in the sweet-smelling sauce. "What else do you like about me?"

"Oh, lots." Gakupo said as the waitress scurried off into the kitchen and out of sight. He held her waist and pulled her close to him.

Luka popped the bun into her mouth and chewed thoughtfully. "Like what?"

Gakupo picked up Luka's hand as she reached out to grab another roll and bowing his head low he kissed it tenderly.

"I love your long fingers and soft hands." He said moving his lips up her arm, brushing them against her skin.

Luka felt a tingle of excitement where ever Gakupo rested his lips. He stopped and softly, but purposefully kissed her in the middle of her arm.

"I love your long arms. Especially when they're wrapped around me."

Gakupo was glad he had his head bowed; because he wasn't sure he could keep a straight face while saying such embarrassing things. He meant every word, yet he still felt the sides of his mouth turn up in an uncontrollable grin.

He moved up Luka's shoulder and on to her neck where he rested his lips right below her chin.

"Gakupo…" she moaned as a warning.

"I love you're long white neck. Whenever I see you looking at me from across the room I think of a swan dancing on a lake surface."

Gakupo was now looking into Luka's eyes and she could see how serious he was. Even in the darkened room, his dark eyes seemed to glow with lilac radiance.

He slowly crept up her chin and kissed her on the cheek. "I love the shape of your face. It is so very much like a heart. Your pink hair only makes it more so. Whenever I look into your eyes I am constantly reminded of my love for you."

Gakupo moved just a little bit further until he tenderly brushed against her lips. He kissed her again, but he made sure to move much slower, much more gently, and much softer than before. He wanted this kiss to last and last.

Gakupo and Luka left the restaurant and went back to the park. There they found the melted remains of their discarded ice-cream cones right where they had thrown them. Laughing they picked them up and threw them into the trash can.

Gakupo and Luka lounged on the pink carpet of flower petals through the late afternoon.

Gakupo got a mischievous idea and gathered fistfuls of petals which he sprinkled over Luka. Luka laughed and tossed a fistful of petals at him and it quickly evolved into a flower fight.

When they were done there were gaps in the flower carpet where the grass poked through and they lay on their backs watching the little pink flowers falling to the earth gently; riding the wind like sprites on the breeze.

When the sun began to set they left the park hand-in-hand heading unknowingly towards their hill. As they walked they shed the little flowers that had clung to their clothes and hair leaving a little trail that was swept away in the cool evening gust.

Once they reached their hill they found that they had a perfect view of the sunset, which had just begun to dip below the horizon, so they sat and waited.

When the sun began throwing fuchsia beams into the clouds which were drifting lazily by Gakupo felt Luka rest her head on his shoulder.

"Meiko and Kaito's wedding is in May."

"Mm, hm." Gakupo hummed in approval.

"We need to give them a present."

"Mm, hm."

They were both silent until the orange of the sun began to bleed into the trees and houses, making it look as though the world were on fire.

"Do you want to?" Luka asked suddenly

"To what?" Gakupo answered feeling stupid for a moment.

"Get married!" Luka scoffed.

Gakupo saw an opportunity to tease Luka. "Are you proposing?" he asked grinning.

Luka playfully smacked his shoulder and he laughed until she settled back into his shoulder.

Gakupo bit his lip as he thought for a moment about marriage. In his opinion, they didn't need to get married. Marriage was a declaration before the country and before God that they would be together forever.

"I've already promised you that I will love you forever and a day, till the end of all time." Gakupo said musing over his thoughts. "It seems redundant to have to declare it before the state and before God."

Luka tried to hold in her sigh of disappointment when Gakupo hugged her unexpectedly.

"But for you Luka, I would write it on every building, I would sing it to the heavens, I would say it at the end of every sentence."

He clutched his fist in front of him in a gesture of determination and Luka giggled.

"Marriage will do." She assured him.

"Does this count as a proposal, then?" He wondered. "Or can I get a redo a bit later? Because I think I can do it right!"

"Whatever you want." Luka said.

"I think I'll surprise you." He assured her. "It'll come when you least expect it!"

"But it'll come?" She asked looking up at him curiously.

Gakupo felt a sharp, familiar twinge in his chest. Luka looked so beautiful and sad, it made his heart ache.

He gently held her chin in place, so she could see the sincerity in his eyes when he reassured her: "Yes, It will definitely come!"

Luka smiled satisfied. "I'm glad." She said as they watched the sun sink away.

The breeze was cool on their faces as the sky faded from fiery shades of orange, to yellow, to blue then to black. When it seemed as though the light show was done for the night Luka thought about heading back to the Vocaloid home, but Gakupo tapped her on the shoulder.

From the city behind them, the rainbow of colors had begun to bleed into the sky, like a dazzling work of abstract art, and the brightest stars glinted through like pin-pricks of light.

Gakupo held Luka's hand and kissed it thoughtlessly. Luka smiled and lay in Gakupo's lap where she stayed for quite some time appreciating the colors of the night.

"Gakupo, do you still have that tent in the grave?" Luka asked as she yawned away drowsiness.

"Sure do." Gakupo said.

Luka glanced at Gakupo's silhouette in the darkness and longed to discover what she could no longer see.

Gakupo stroked Luka's soft hair. He ran his fingers through her smooth hair and let some of it fall. He held onto a strand of her hair and kissed it gently.

"We're not going home tonight? Are we?" He asked grinning.

"Sure aren't." Luka answered rolling over. "Are you okay with that?" She said as she stood on her knees and stroked his shoulders.

Gakupo felt his whole body turn ridged with an electric attraction. Unable to hold himself back any longer he seized Luka around the waist and ran his fingers over her curves. He stroked her shoulder blades and rested his hand on her hip.

Luka attacked his face in a shower of kisses and stopped only to laugh and catch her breath.

"You're not going to regret this in the morning? Right?"

Gakupo took up her kisses with vigor and laughed. "I never regret time spent with you!"


	29. Fear of Regret

**Because I missed this series so much I did a little one shot... NOT TO BE READ AT TEN O CLOCK AT NIGHT ALONE! (when I wrote it)**

* * *

Gakupo groaned as he finished his dinner. He'd been looking forward to having a long, well-deserved rest since he'd been working on the new song for his CD but he'd just remembered he had been asked to come up with a new single for the fans.

Sighing he opened up the new dishwasher and put his plate in one of the neat white wired slots. His was going to be the first plate washed, which, he figured, was something to be happy about.

The house was weirdly quiet. It was normal to hear the whirring of mechanical tools drifting up from the basement-lab where the Master worked but there was only silence. Gakupo figured that either she had fallen asleep or she was working on the design for something new.

None of the other Vocaloids seemed to be stirring either. For the first time in many months there was no discordant melody emanating from upstairs, no jarring guitar chords as someone taught themselves a new song, no fighting, bickering, or music of any kind.

Just silence.

Gakupo liked the quiet and paused at the foot of the stairs to savor it. It wasn't often that he was allowed a moment of peace and he relished in it while it lasted.

On his way up stairs he experimented with the sounds of his footfalls against the thick carpet. He made a short rhythm, listened to see if he liked it then sped up or slowed down until he found a beat that he could follow. When he got to his room he would jot down the tempo and rhythm of the beats he liked and see if he could compose a melody to follow the beat.

He never told any of the other Vocaloid that that was how he wrote his songs, he was afraid that they might try and mess him up. Sure, it was a bit unorthodox, but it was his method and he liked it.

Too soon the end of the stairs came and he had to just walk down to his room, but before he did he slowed down his breathing to the gentle silent lapping of a wave against some beach and listened around. He heard nothing.

None of the other Vocaloid were moving, talking, or even listening to music. With thirteen Vocaloids in the house at the moment, it was incredible that not a single one was stirring or making a noticeable noise of any kind.

Except for Dell. He seemed to sleep eighteen hours of every day and it was rare to see him moving for more than food or the occasional cigarette. Dr. Evil had sent him over from another Vocaloid correspondent, Dr. Rita to see if the Master could reprogram him or fix whatever kept him asleep for so long.

Gakupo glanced down the deep, black hallway and tugged his tee-shirt away from his neck as he was suddenly seized by the sensation that it was choking him. The darkened hall seemed like the abysmal passage to another world as the unsettling silence pressed against his eardrums, making them rumble with every slight trembling step he took.

"I have to make it to my bedroom" that was the only thought on his mind. "Once I'm there, near the window where I can see the sun I'll feel silly for being so scared."

The doors which stood on either side of the walls that used to be passage ways to friends and family now seemed to him to stand like ominous overlords; standing, watching, guarding the poor lost soul plunging down deeper into the darkness.

At the end of the hallway was a single door. Gakupo knew it led to Meiko's room; silly, drunk, motherly Meiko that they all knew. He didn't care.

It was a simple, plain door and it hadn't changed at all since he'd seen it that morning; yet somehow the simplicity and the homeliness of the scene made it all the more terrifying.

"Meiko isn't in that room anymore." He told himself as a trail of goose bumps crept along a path up the back of his neck and he clenched his fists against a sudden cold trail of water running in his veins.

No, Meiko was forever absent from that room. Her presence had been wiped away. He'd done it himself. He'd taken the last proof of her there and had whittled it away until it had disappeared.

He was standing at his door, his breathing still at a slow meditative pace. He was hardly breathing at all and had actually been relaxing into a stupor. He began to breath normally again and shook off the sensation that he'd been drifting off to sleep.

With his hand on the doorknob he felt safe, reassured. There was nothing in the world strange of odd or scary, except that there was a rare few minutes of quiet in the house.

But then that wasn't true anymore. There was a creaking noise now. It was next to silent, but in that dark hallway, with his silent breathing against his racing heart it might as well have been screaming.

The gentle, almost complacent groaning. The wood moaning like one who has long suffered and no longer wishes for relief, only to express the pain.

Gakupo glanced down the blackened hallway. Meiko's old door stood slightly ajar.

Slightly ajar. Silently pleading, almost goading, if not begging someone to come and grasp the shiny door handle and take the miniscule effort needed to open the door the rest of the way and step inside.

Partly open like a hungry mouth, that sees its prey and hangs its drooling jaw just a bit to let the lingering scent inside and play around the mouth, teeth, the tongue. Taunting. Yet that only makes it the more satisfying when it seizes up its seducer.

It was cracked slightly, like a smile. A boldfaced smile in the face of all of his assurance and all of his denial that something scary was happening. It had swung open, or so it seemed, just to show that his rationalizations were unfounded.

A thin line of blue light from the window enticed Gakupo to step forward, like a thin tongue of blue fire that lolled out onto the floor, giving the very plain looking door the further appearance of being a portal to another world.

"Another world, another dimension, another space, another time; or just another room?" He asked himself, hand resting self-assured on his own, fine, familiar doorknob.

He turned to stare at his hand. It was lazily, almost limply lying across his doorknob that had been shined with constant use over the few years of his life. To him it said: "Don't risk it. You're here, just ignore it." Like a loyal friend with an acute sense of danger.

"Danger? What danger?" Gakupo let his hand slide off the doorknob and hang at his side. His fingers were momentarily caught and lingered, as if refusing at first to succumb to his will but gravity finished the job for him.

He looked at the opened door. It was almost arrogant in its denial of all of his comforting, if not scornful deductions.

With a sudden rush of adrenaline he raced for the door, before his better sense could prompt him to do otherwise. He suddenly found himself flying down the hallway, his footsteps echoing the tremulous beating of his heart that throbbed on either side of his temples like the dull crack of sledge hammers working away at his skull.

The doors passed by as if by magic, and the distance between footsteps seemed to gradually become longer and longer. He felt as though he were leaping and staying in the air for minutes at a time and that the doors were zooming past him like streetlights on the highway.

Then suddenly he was there.

He was at the door, just barely slowing himself down enough to halt his momentum and keep from crashing into the wood. He was so close to it he could feel his hot breath bounce back and hit him in the face.

He looked down and saw that tongue of blue fire lying across his boot. He thoughtlessly picked up his foot, scolding himself a moment later for being foolish. It wasn't actually a tongue of blue fire; it was a beam of light being filtered in through the window.

"Push it you chicken." He goaded himself, looking down at the gleaming crystal doorknob. "There's nothing to be scared of." he reassured himself in the same breath.

For all of the hype and all of the certainty in his mind that there was nothing unusual in the room he still found it impossible to move for several seconds. Whenever he picked up his hand and reached for the knob his stomach would clench with fear, and an eerie smile would play across his face as though he KNEW what he found on the other side would turn that smile that he just couldn't control into a scream.

Finally, he gritted his teeth and grinned in the face of unknown and unspoken terror. He ignored the clenching of his stomach that was like one million flapping bird wings tickling his insides and with all of the strength in his arm he clenched the knob.

Once he had the shiny, iridescent thing in his clutches the next part was the simplest: Push!

The door swung open with the very least of his prompting. A thrill of fear rocked Gakupo and he had to put his hand to his chest to keep his metal heart from pounding itself free.

From beneath his black tee-shirt he could feel the thin, lightweight metal bars that made up the human-esque ribcage of his. From somewhere beneath these bars his poor heart was fluttering madly like a frantic song bird terrified and panicked. The veins and skin pushed against his fingers like the cloth over a gilded cage.

"Maybe that's all I ever was." Gakupo thought as he closed his eyes and tried to reign in the intense feelings. "A walking, talking birdcage filled with all manners of birds desperate to be free; sensing with their animal instinct the danger I choose to ignore, desperate to abandon this suicide mission."

But as he opened his eyes and looked around he finally felt what he had wanted to feel all along: silly.

There was nothing in the room. It was completely empty. Meiko had taken her things with her when she moved out of the house with Kaito that May, after their marriage. He had helped her clean up himself.

Gakupo sighed and smiled. He wanted to laugh at himself for getting so worked up, but he settled for smiling. It was funny after all, and the relief made it almost doubly more so.

He walked around, looking at the imprints on the carpet where Meiko's furniture used to lay feeling both sad, and happy. But most of all nostalgic.

He missed Kaito, and he missed Meiko. They were both a lot of fun to be around, but when Kaito moved out he felt as though he'd lost a great friend, and one of the few people who understood him. He still saw him for work and for fun sometimes but nothing could compare to them living together.

Gakupo shook his head and turned around to take one last parting glimpse of the room before retiring to his own room and working on the beat he'd come up with on the stairs. And of course sleeping.

He blinked twice and screamed.

There, in the corner of the room, lurking in shadows was a hideous creature the likes of which he had never seen. Its face was a sickly white, the white of a fish's belly which stood in direct contrast with the black, shiny, soulless pits that emanated from where eyes were supposed to be. It cocked its head and the crimson red of its mouth was bathed in the fading sunlight. White, sharp, crooked teeth jutted from the mouth like a horrible reptile; some foul lizard that thirsted for smaller prey that he could sink his terrible fangs into with a sickening crunch.

Oh god, Gakupo could hear the crunch of something in between its jaws. He could hear it as plainly as if it were happening before him. The terrible crunch that you could feel from several feet away and that made you sick to your stomach.

The shadows of the sunset etched caverns of darkness across a face so twisted and deformed it looked painfully jovial. It staring him down with neither joy, nor humor it its black eyes, yet a perpetual grin was stretched across its thin bony face. A fat, red grin across slick shiny lips fringed with white teeth. The skin pulling away in grievously deep laugh lines and sending fissures up the round, jolly cheeks and scraggily cracks into the canyons that seemed to be eyes.

He looked up into the eyes. The eyes which vanished into the monster's forehead. The black empty pits were flickering madly.

The complete analysis of the creature took less than a second. The next second was easily the most taxing of his whole life.

The monster proved it was alive by leaning out to grab him; leering from out of the shadows it stretched its two massive hands in one sudden motion, as if to seize his face and pull him in closer to the thing where it could hold him down, or even take a bite out of him, if it so pleased.

For Gakupo, it was as though he was trapped in some horrible dream. He saw the thing, he saw the hands. The stiff fingers and broken ugly nails that were filled with dirt; as though the monster had clawed and dug and fought its way straight out of some god-forsaken grave to get here.

The fingers were unbelievably long, and they seemed to stretch out as they came closer to him. He was reminded of the strange happenings when he ran to the door, how time seemed to slow down, and wondered briefly if he was hallucinating.

Suddenly it was all too real. He looked up and saw that hideous face, and a river of blood-red hair that was twisted and gnarled into a flower that spread away from the back of its head. It reminded him of the dead bodies of TV, floating in still water with their hair billowing up like a water lily. The blood-lily hair disappeared into the shadows like a scarlet tether to another world, the only portal to which lies in the shadows behind its back.

He didn't want to go. He didn't want it to touch him with the white, limp, clammy hands that spoke of one long, long dead. If it touched him the chill alone would kill him, his heart wouldn't be able to stand it. If it touched him and he somehow survived it would pull him into the shadows, where he had no inkling what might become of him. It was somehow an even worse threat than the possibility of being eaten at that moment. The uncertainty was the worst fear.

He imagined the crunch. The feeling of his bones shattering and splintering against the stone-hardened teeth. He forgot momentarily that he was an android.

At that moment the monster decided to let out a guttural growl, and Gakupo felt the last of his breath turn cold in his chest and escape him in a horrified sigh.

It was too much, too much. There was too much human in the animalistic sound he'd heard. It was almost a human voice attempting to speak, but choked by a horrible primal roar. The humanity made it so much more terrible.

Then suddenly it hit him: plastic. The creature's face was plastic. It was a mask, and a mask that he'd seen before as a matter of fact!

He groaned, no longer afraid and collapsed to his knees. His legs had turned to jelly and would no longer support him. He brought his fists up to his face and closed his eyes, waiting for the adrenaline to wear off and his heart to return to a normal pace.

The entire charade took no more than five seconds in total, but to Gakupo it had been a lifetime. He was exhausted and the demon clown began to chime a chorus of high-pitched giggling to fit his ridiculous mood.

"I can't believe you screamed like that!" Len said pulling off the terrifying face.

"You scream like a girl!" Rin said emerging from Meiko's empty closet. They exchanged glances and descended into a fit of hysterics, occasionally trying to imitate his girly scream.

"Hey, is every one alright? I heard a scream." Luka said opening the door and peering in.

"It was Gakupo! He shrieked!" Rin said in between gasps for breath.

Gakupo stood up now that the blood had returned to his legs and his heart had slowed down. He walked over to the door and grabbed the door jamb for support as his legs pitched and threw him slightly.

He looked into Luka's concerned, curious eyes and felt ashamed of his cowardice, but also redeemed for his fears.

"This is my word of warning ahead of time: I'm going to kill your siblings."


End file.
